Does the IRS Accept Electronic Signatures? Forms and Exceptions

Yes. The IRS does accept electronic signatures, and most individual taxpayers already use one every year: the five-digit PIN you enter when e-filing a return is a legal electronic signature. The agency also accepts electronic signatures on power-of-attorney uploads, on e-file authorization forms your preparer sends you, and on a long list of paper forms that previously required ink. The method you can use depends on the form and how you’re submitting it.¹

Signing Your Own E-Filed Return

If you file your own return through consumer tax software, you sign with a self-select PIN. Pick any five-digit number other than all zeros. To prove it’s really you, the software also asks for your date of birth and either your prior-year adjusted gross income or the PIN you used last year. If the IRS issued you an Identity Protection PIN, that stands in for the AGI or prior-year PIN.¹ On a joint return, each spouse enters their own PIN.²

That’s it. Once the software transmits the return, you should get an electronic acknowledgment confirming the IRS accepted it.

Signing When a Tax Pro Files for You

When a tax professional e-files on your behalf, you sign Form 8879, IRS e-file Signature Authorization, before transmission. Under the practitioner PIN method, you authorize the preparer (formally called an Electronic Return Originator, or ERO) to enter or generate a PIN for you. The ERO then signs the return using their own credentials.³ Form 8878 does the same job for extensions filed through Form 4868 or Form 2350.⁴

If you e-sign Form 8879 or 8878 remotely, meaning you’re not sitting in your preparer’s office, the ERO’s software has to verify your identity first. It collects your name, Social Security number, address, and date of birth, then typically runs a soft credit inquiry to generate knowledge-based authentication questions. Expect multiple-choice items about things like a former address, a vehicle you financed, or your mortgage lender.⁵

Fail those questions three times and the electronic signature option shuts down. Your preparer then has to collect a handwritten signature instead. Identity verification runs every time you e-sign one of these forms, with one exception: if you sign in the physical presence of your ERO and have an ongoing multi-year relationship with the firm, the verification can be waived.⁵

Which Forms Accept Electronic Signatures

The IRS keeps two groups of forms open to electronic signing. The first is the long-established e-file list, where PINs and checkboxes have been the signature method for years:

Individual returns: Form 1040 (via PIN when e-filed)
Business returns: Form 1120, Form 1065, Form 990
Employment tax returns: Form 940, Form 941
Excise tax returns: Form 720, Form 2290
E-file authorizations: the Form 8879 and 8878 families
Other common forms: Form 4506-T (transcript requests), Form 8655 (reporting agent authorization), Form 8849 (excise tax refund claims)

The second group covers forms that traditionally required ink and were opened to electronic signatures during COVID. Those flexibilities were originally scheduled to end October 31, 2023, but the IRS extended them indefinitely while it works on more permanent solutions.⁶ This group includes estate and gift tax returns (the Form 706 series and Form 709), certain business forms (Form 11-C, Form 637), and applications such as Form 1127 for hardship-based payment extensions.⁷

Power-of-attorney paperwork sits in its own bucket. Form 2848 (Power of Attorney) and Form 8821 (Tax Information Authorization) accept electronic signatures when uploaded through the IRS online portal. You can use a typed name, a scanned signature, stylus input on a touchscreen, or a signature generated through third-party software. Mail or fax the same forms, though, and they must carry a wet ink signature.⁸

What Counts as a Valid Electronic Signature

The IRS recognizes several signature types, and each form’s guidance tells you which ones apply to it. The approved methods are:

A typed name entered in a signature block
A scanned image of a handwritten signature attached to the document
A PIN, password, or security code
A biometric identifier such as a fingerprint, voice print, or retinal scan
A handwritten signature captured on an electronic signature pad or touchscreen with a stylus
A checkbox selected on an electronic device (used, for example, on Form 8655)
A signature produced by commercial e-signature software, where the form’s guidance allows it

Voice signatures are also accepted for a handful of forms, including Form 8850 for the Work Opportunity Credit.⁷

Whichever method you use, three conditions have to be met: the signature must show the signer intended to sign, it must be logically tied to the document, and the process must be able to detect any later change to the record.⁷

When You Still Need Ink

Any form the IRS has not specifically opened to electronic signatures still needs a handwritten one. The submission channel matters just as much as the form itself: a form that can be e-signed in one context may require ink in another.

Paper-filed returns are the clearest example. A Form 1040 mailed on paper needs a handwritten signature, even though the identical return filed through tax software gets signed with a PIN.⁷ The same rule applies to Form 1120 and most other paper-filed returns.

Form 2553, the S corporation election, is a form people often ask about. It’s not on the IRS’s electronic signature lists. The IRS does accept faxed copies, however, and has concluded that a faxed signature is legally sufficient for Form 2553, so mailing the original is not required. Keep the original with your corporate records if you fax it.⁹

Collection forms work similarly. Form 656 (Offer in Compromise) traditionally needs an ink signature when mailed. Submit Form 656 and Form 433-A(OIC) electronically through your IRS Individual Online Account, though, and no ink signature is required.¹⁰ For installment agreements, you can apply online through your IRS account or mail Form 9465, which needs a signature for the direct debit authorization.¹¹

If You Collect E-Signatures for Clients

Tax professionals who gather electronic signatures have retention duties. EROs must keep Form 8879 or Form 8878 in tamper-proof, access-controlled storage for three years from the return’s due date or the date the IRS received it, whichever is later. Don’t send these forms to the IRS unless specifically asked for them.⁵³

The IRS also expects an audit trail. Where a signature is stored separately from the document, a reliable method such as a relational database or digital signature algorithm has to link the two, and documents transmitted through secure systems need encryption that proves the record is original and unmodified.⁷ Individual taxpayers don’t need to think about any of this. If you’re choosing e-signature software for a business, confirming that it produces a complete audit trail with timestamps is a quick check worth doing.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 255, Signing Your Return Electronically
2
Internal Revenue Service. Self-Select PIN Method for Forms 1040 and 4868 Modernized e-File (MeF)
3
Internal Revenue Service. Form 8879 IRS e-file Signature Authorization
4
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8878, IRS e-file Signature Authorization for Form 4868 or Form 2350
5
Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions for IRS e-file Signature Authorization
6
Internal Revenue Service. IR-2023-199: IRS Extends Popular Flexibilities Set to Expire
7
Internal Revenue Service. 10.10.1 IRS Electronic Signature (e-Signature) Program
8
Internal Revenue Service. Submit Forms 2848 and 8821 Online
9
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2553 (Rev. December 2020)
10
Internal Revenue Service. Interim Guidance on Securing, Processing Original Offers in Compromise via Individual Online Account (IOLA)
11
Internal Revenue Service. Payment Plans; Installment Agreements