How to File an 83(b) Election Online: Form 15620

You cannot file an 83(b) election through any IRS website or online portal. The signed election has to reach the IRS service center where you file your personal tax return, on paper, postmarked within 30 days of the stock transfer. What you can do online is prepare Form 15620 (or an equivalent written statement), sign it electronically, and use a digital mailing service that prints and sends it by certified mail on your behalf. That combination is the closest thing to filing an 83(b) election online, and done correctly it satisfies every IRS requirement.

Why There Is No Fully Online Filing

The IRS requires the signed election to be sent by mail to the service center where you file your individual income tax return.¹ There is no IRS portal, email address, or e-file channel that accepts these elections directly. The workaround everyone actually uses is the timely mailing rule in IRC Section 7502: a document postmarked by the deadline is treated as filed on the postmark date, even if the IRS receives it days later.²

That rule is why online filing services work at all. Platforms offered by Stripe Atlas, Fidelity, and various startup legal tools let you fill out the election on screen, sign it electronically, and hand it off to be printed and mailed by USPS certified mail with return receipt requested. You never touch paper. The physical letter is what the IRS actually receives, but from your side the whole process runs through a browser.

The 30-Day Deadline Is Absolute

The election must be postmarked no later than 30 calendar days after the property was transferred to you. Not business days. If day 30 lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday, the deadline rolls to the next business day.¹ The transfer date is usually the grant date on your stock purchase agreement, though it can differ if the shares were issued on a later date.

Miss the window by a day and the election is dead. The IRS grants no extensions, accepts no late filings, and offers no administrative relief for a blown 83(b) deadline. There is no form to ask for an exception and no appeal. This is where most 83(b) mistakes happen: people sign their purchase agreements, move on, and forget that a 30-day clock is running. If you are using an online mailing service, upload and sign early enough that the certified mail postmark lands well before day 30, not on it.

Preparing the Document Digitally

The IRS released Form 15620 (revised April 2025) as an optional, standardized election form. You are not required to use it. A written statement that meets Treasury Regulation Section 1.83-2 remains valid, which is how these elections were filed for decades. Most employers and law firms still provide their own templates.¹

Whichever format you use, the document must include:

Your full legal name, current address, and Social Security number.
A description of the property: number of shares, class of stock, and the issuing company.
The exact date the property was transferred and the tax year the election applies to.
The restrictions on the property, such as the vesting schedule or other conditions that could cause forfeiture.
The fair market value at the time of transfer, determined without regard to restrictions that will eventually lapse.
The amount you paid for the property, if anything, which is used to calculate the taxable spread.³

Form 15620 also includes a line for spousal acknowledgment. A spouse’s signature is not legally required for the election to be valid, but in community property states it is a useful precaution against later disputes.

Signing the Election Electronically

The IRS accepts electronic signatures on 83(b) elections. The authority was first established through temporary COVID-era guidance and has been permanently incorporated into the Internal Revenue Manual.⁴ The IRM requires that an electronic signature demonstrate the signer’s intent to sign the specific document and that the signature be logically associated with the record so the connection can be reproduced later.

In practice that means using a reputable e-signature platform that captures the signer’s email, IP address, and a timestamp, and that produces a tamper-evident audit trail. DocuSign, similar e-signature tools, and the built-in signing features of 83(b) filing services generally meet the IRS standard. A name typed into a Word document with no verification layer is risky and leaves you without the audit trail the IRM contemplates.

Mailing the Signed Election

Once the document is signed, it has to be postmarked and sent to the IRS service center for your personal return. USPS certified mail with return receipt requested is the standard method, because the certified mail receipt is your proof of the postmark date and the return receipt confirms delivery. Online filing services handle this for you and pass the tracking information back through the platform.

If you use a private carrier instead, only IRS-designated delivery services qualify for the timely mailing rule. Qualifying tiers include specific services from FedEx (such as FedEx Priority Overnight and FedEx Standard Overnight), UPS (such as UPS Next Day Air), and DHL Express.⁵ Standard ground shipping from those same carriers does not qualify. If you use a non-designated service and the IRS receives the letter after day 30, the election is invalid no matter when you actually shipped it.

Keep Your Own Proof

The IRS does not send confirmation that it received your 83(b) election. There is no acknowledgment letter. Your proof of filing is entirely your responsibility. Keep the certified mail receipt showing the postmark date and the return receipt showing delivery. If you filed through an online service, download and permanently store every confirmation, tracking number, and delivery record the platform generates. Years later, if you sell the stock and the IRS questions your cost basis or holding period, those documents are your defense.

Send a Copy to Your Employer

After filing with the IRS, you must provide a copy of the completed and signed election to the company (or person) for whom you performed the services that earned the stock.¹ The company needs it to report the income correctly on your W-2 (if you are an employee) or 1099-NEC (if you are a contractor). Send this promptly after mailing to the IRS. An email with the signed PDF attached is fine and easy to document.

You no longer have to attach a copy of the election to your annual income tax return. Treasury Regulation Section 1.83-2(c) was amended to remove that step, so your filing obligations end with the IRS mailing and the copy to your employer. Keep a permanent personal copy of the signed election, the certified mail and return receipts, any digital confirmations, and your stock purchase agreement showing the transfer date.

What to Know Before You File

An 83(b) election flips the default tax treatment of restricted stock. Instead of paying ordinary income tax on each vesting tranche at its then-current value, you pay tax now on the spread between what you paid and the fair market value at transfer, and all future appreciation is taxed as capital gain when you sell.⁶ It also starts your long-term capital gains holding period on the grant date rather than each vesting date.

Two things are worth understanding before you send the letter. First, if you leave the company before your shares vest, you forfeit the unvested portion, and the tax code explicitly denies any deduction for that forfeiture. You do not get back the tax you already paid on the election, and your capital loss is limited to what you actually paid out of pocket for the forfeited shares.⁶ The risk is small when the stock is nearly worthless at transfer and large when it is not.

Second, the election is effectively permanent. You can revoke it only with the consent of the IRS Commissioner, and only when the election was based on a mistake of fact about the underlying transaction. A drop in stock value does not qualify. A change of heart does not qualify. Any revocation request has to be made within 60 days of discovering the mistake.⁷ Treat the election as irreversible from the moment your mailing service drops it in the mail.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Form 15620 – Section 83(b) Election
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 7502 – Timely Mailing Treated as Timely Filing and Paying
3
Internal Revenue Service. Private Letter Ruling 201438006
4
Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Manual 10.10.1 – IRS Electronic Signature (e-Signature) Program
5
Internal Revenue Service. Private Delivery Services (PDS)
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 83 – Property Transferred in Connection With Performance of Services
7
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.83-2 – Election to Include in Gross Income in Year of Transfer