How to Fill Out Form 56 for a Deceased Person

To fill out Form 56 for a deceased person, you identify the decedent and yourself in Part I, check the box showing the source of your fiduciary authority (will, court appointment, or trust), list every tax form and year your authority covers, sign and date it, and mail it with a current copy of your Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration to the IRS Service Center where the decedent filed returns. The form, officially titled Notice Concerning Fiduciary Relationship, is how an executor, administrator, or trustee tells the IRS that they now stand in the deceased taxpayer’s shoes for tax purposes.¹

Once the IRS processes the form, tax correspondence for the deceased comes to you, and you gain the authority to sign returns, receive confidential account information, and respond to notices on behalf of the estate.

One Case Where You Can Skip It

A surviving spouse filing a joint return for the year the other spouse died can sign that return without filing Form 56 first. The exception is narrow. It covers only that one joint return. If the estate later earns income and needs its own Form 1041, someone still has to file Form 56 to act as fiduciary for the estate.²

What to Have in Front of You Before You Start

Gather everything before you open the form. Going back to fill in blanks wastes time and invites errors that delay processing.

The Decedent’s Information

You need the deceased person’s full legal name exactly as it appeared on their last tax return or Social Security card, their Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, their last known address, and the date of death. The date of death goes on Line 2a.

Your Information as Fiduciary

Provide your full legal name, current mailing address, and SSN or ITIN. The IRS sends all future correspondence about the deceased person’s tax accounts to whatever address you list, so use an address where you reliably receive mail.

Proof of Your Authority

The IRS needs to see that you are legally authorized to act. For a probate appointment, that means attaching a copy of your Letters Testamentary (estates with a will) or Letters of Administration (intestate estates). The instructions require these to be current, so get a certified copy from the court close to the date you plan to file.³ If you are acting as fiduciary for a trust rather than a probate estate, attach the pages of the trust document showing your appointment.

For intestate estates with no court appointment, you may check the box on Line 1d if you are the only person in possession of the decedent’s property. The option exists for small or informal estates and limits what you can do compared with a full court appointment.

Working Through Part I

Part I asks for the decedent’s name, address, and identifying number, followed by your name, address, and identifying number as fiduciary. Beneath that, you tell the IRS where your authority comes from. Check the box matching your situation: testate estate, intestate estate with court appointment, intestate estate with no court appointment (Line 1d), or trust. Court-appointed fiduciaries also fill in the name of the court, its location, and the case number.

Listing the Tax Forms and Years

This section tells the IRS which tax forms and periods your authority covers. Most fiduciaries handling a deceased taxpayer select at least two: Form 1040 for the final individual return, and Form 1041 for the estate’s income tax return if the estate will earn more than $600 in gross income during a tax year.⁴ List the specific tax year for each form. For the final Form 1040, the tax period is the calendar year the person died.

If the estate might owe estate tax (Form 706) or there are gift tax returns (Form 709) outstanding, include those too. Covering every relevant form up front saves you from filing an amended Form 56 later.

Signing

Sign and date the form. Your signature certifies that you have the authority described and that the information is accurate. For a trust, the trustee signs.

Where to Send It and When

Mail the completed form, along with the court documents, to the IRS Service Center where the deceased person was required to file their tax returns.⁵ The specific address depends on the state where the decedent lived, and the current addresses appear in the Form 56 instructions. If you need to receive notices for multiple form types and one is Form 1040, file with the center that handles the decedent’s Form 1040.

Form 56 is also available for electronic filing through the IRS Modernized e-File platform, which tax professionals may use.⁶ If you are working with an accountant or enrolled agent, ask whether they can submit it electronically rather than by mail.

Timing matters. File Form 56 before or at the same time as the first return you sign for the deceased. If the IRS receives a return signed by a fiduciary who has not filed Form 56, processing delays and rejections follow.

If There Are Co-Fiduciaries

When a will names co-executors or a court appoints more than one administrator, each fiduciary must file a separate Form 56.³ One form listing both names will not work. Each co-fiduciary files individually with the same IRS Service Center, referencing the same decedent and estate case number.

A Liability Risk Worth Knowing About

The role is broader than most new fiduciaries expect. The IRS treats you as the taxpayer for every period on the form, which means you take on both the rights and obligations of the deceased person’s tax situation: filing returns, paying tax owed, and responding to notices.⁷

Federal law gives the government’s tax claims priority over almost every other debt when an estate’s assets do not cover everyone. If you distribute assets to beneficiaries or pay other creditors before settling federal tax obligations, you can become personally liable for the unpaid tax, up to the amount you distributed.⁸ Funeral expenses and probate administration costs can go first because they outrank federal tax claims. Credit card payoffs, mortgage payments, and distributions to family cannot. The knowledge standard is not forgiving: you do not need actual knowledge that taxes are owed, only to be in a position where a reasonably careful person would have suspected them.

You can protect yourself by filing Form 5495, Request for Discharge from Personal Liability, after all required returns are filed.⁹ The IRS then has nine months to notify you of any additional income or gift tax owed. After you pay whatever the IRS determines, you are discharged from liability for deficiencies discovered later. If the IRS does not respond within nine months, you are automatically discharged.¹⁰ The discharge protects your personal assets, not just the estate’s.

Closing the Relationship When You’re Done

The fiduciary relationship Form 56 establishes does not end on its own when the estate closes. It stays active until you tell the IRS it is over, and the IRS keeps sending you correspondence until you do.

To end it, complete Part II of a new Form 56, check the box indicating that the fiduciary relationship has terminated, and enter the date your authority ended.⁷ If a successor fiduciary is replacing you, note that on the form; the successor files their own separate Form 56. Mail the termination to the same Service Center where you originally filed. If you requested discharge from personal liability through Form 5495, wait for that process to resolve before terminating so you can receive the IRS’s response.

1
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 56, Notice Concerning Fiduciary Relationship
2
Internal Revenue Service. Form 1310 (Rev. December 2025)
3
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 56 (Rev. December 2024)
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Internal Revenue Service. File an Estate Tax Income Tax Return
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Internal Revenue Service. Where to File – Forms Beginning With the Number 5
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Internal Revenue Service. Modernized e-File (MeF) Forms
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 56 – Notice Concerning Fiduciary Relationship
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 3713 – Priority of Government Claims
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 5495, Request for Discharge from Personal Liability Under I.R. Code Sec. 2204 or 6905
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eCFR. 26 CFR 301.6905-1 – Discharge of Executor From Personal Liability for Decedent’s Income and Gift Taxes