What Is Form 2848? IRS Power of Attorney Filing and Revocation

IRS Form 2848, titled Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative, is the form you sign to authorize a specific person to represent you before the Internal Revenue Service on the tax matters and years you list. Once the IRS records it, your representative can speak with the agency on your behalf, receive your confidential tax information, respond to audits, and negotiate on issues like payment plans. The authorization is narrow by design: it covers only the tax types and periods you write in, and it stays in effect until you revoke it, your representative withdraws, or the IRS purges it from its records.

Who Can Represent You

Not everyone qualifies. Treasury Department Circular No. 230 sets the rules, and your representative signs Part II of the form under penalty of perjury confirming they meet them.¹ Five categories of professionals have unlimited representation rights and can act for you on any tax matter before any IRS office:

Attorneys in good standing, not suspended or disbarred from IRS practice.
Certified public accountants in good standing, not suspended or disbarred from IRS practice.
Enrolled agents, who are federally licensed tax practitioners.
Enrolled actuaries, for certain retirement plan matters.
Enrolled retirement plan agents, for specific retirement plan form issues.

Several other people can represent you only in limited situations: a corporate officer, a full-time employee, or a close family member (spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild) for specific matters.² Qualifying students and law graduates in Low Income Taxpayer Clinics or Student Tax Clinic Programs may also represent taxpayers, but their authorization expires 130 days from the taxpayer’s signature date.

Unenrolled Return Preparers

An unenrolled return preparer — someone who prepared and signed your return but isn’t an attorney, CPA, or enrolled agent — has the most restricted rights. They can represent you only during an examination of the specific return they prepared, and only before revenue agents or customer service representatives. They cannot appear before appeals officers, revenue officers, or IRS attorneys.² They also cannot sign closing agreements, extend assessment deadlines, or sign documents on your behalf. They must hold a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number, and for returns prepared after December 31, 2015, a current Annual Filing Season Program Record of Completion.

What Your Representative Can and Cannot Do

A properly filed Form 2848 gives your representative broad authority within the scope you set. They can communicate with the IRS, file documents, attend hearings and conferences, access your confidential tax information, execute waivers of assessment restrictions, and sign consents extending the time the IRS has to assess tax.² Where applicable, they may enter closing agreements under 26 U.S.C. § 7121, which permanently resolve your tax liability for a given period.³

One limit is absolute: no representative can endorse or cash a refund check issued to you by the government. No box on the form changes that.⁴ On joint returns where each spouse uses a different representative, one spouse’s representative cannot take any action that the represented spouse couldn’t take alone.

Acts That Require a Line 5a Checkbox

Some actions fall outside the default grant of authority and require you to specifically check the box on Line 5a and, in some cases, add an explanation. Without that specific authorization, your representative cannot:⁴

Sign your income tax return (allowed only under narrow circumstances and only if you grant this authority and include the required explanation).
Substitute or add another representative.
Authorize disclosure of your return information to a third party.
Access your records through an Intermediate Service Provider.

Form 2848 or Form 8821?

The two forms look similar and are easy to confuse. Form 2848 is a power of attorney: your representative can advocate for you, negotiate with the IRS, and sign certain documents. Form 8821 is a Tax Information Authorization: the person named can view and receive your tax information but cannot argue a position, amend documents, or sign anything for you.⁵⁶ If you need someone to handle your tax matters, use Form 2848. If you only need someone to see your records, Form 8821 is enough.

Completing the Form

Download the current version from IRS.gov. Part I covers your information and the scope of the authorization. Part II is your representative’s declaration of eligibility.

Part I: Your Information and Scope

Enter your full legal name, current mailing address, and taxpayer identification number. Individuals use a Social Security Number; entities use an Employer Identification Number. On Line 2, provide your representative’s full name, mailing address, and Centralized Authorization File (CAF) number. If they’ve never been assigned one, write “None” and the IRS will assign a number during processing.²

If you want your representative to receive copies of IRS notices sent to you, check the designated box under their name and address. It isn’t automatic. You can designate up to two representatives to receive notices for the same matter.⁴

Line 3, “Tax Matters,” is where precision matters most. List the type of tax (for example, “Income” or “Employment”), the form number (“1040,” “941”), and the specific years or periods. The IRS rejects vague entries like “All years” or “All periods.”² Write out ranges such as “2022 through 2025” or list each year. Future periods are allowed, but the IRS will not record any future period more than three years beyond December 31 of the year it receives the form.

Line 6 controls what happens to authorizations already on file. Filing a new Form 2848 automatically revokes prior powers of attorney for the same tax matters and periods. To keep a prior representative in place alongside the new one, check the box on Line 6 and attach a copy of the prior form.⁷

Part II: Representative’s Declaration

Your representative signs Part II under penalty of perjury and enters a designation letter (for example, “a” for attorney, “b” for CPA, “c” for enrolled agent), the state of licensure, and any applicable license or enrollment number.² You both sign and date the form. If you’re signing for a business, add your corporate title (President, Treasurer). For an estate, one executor with authority to bind the estate signs. For a trust, the signing trustee enters the title “Trustee.”⁴

Signature Rules

Electronic signatures are accepted only when the form is submitted through the IRS online portal. Forms sent by mail or fax require handwritten signatures; typed, digital, or scanned signatures are not valid on paper submissions.⁴

For online submissions, acceptable e-signature methods include typing your name in the signature block, attaching a scanned image of your handwritten signature, signing on an electronic pad, using a stylus on a screen, or using third-party signature software. When you sign remotely (the representative isn’t physically present), the representative must verify your identity. For an individual, that means inspecting a government-issued photo ID by video or photo; recording your name, Social Security Number, address, and date of birth; and confirming that information against secondary documents such as a prior tax return, an IRS notice, or a utility statement. For a business signer, the representative confirms the signer’s authority and runs similar checks against the business’s EIN and address.

How to File

You can submit the form three ways: mail, fax, or online. The IRS routes paper and fax submissions to one of three regional processing centers based on your location. The exact addresses, fax numbers, and state-by-state assignments are in the “Where to File” chart in the form instructions.⁴ Faxing is generally faster than mailing.

The fastest option is online. Tax professionals can use the “Submit Forms 2848 and 8821 Online” portal to upload a completed, signed form.⁸ Professionals with established IRS accounts can also use the Tax Pro Account tool to initiate an authorization request digitally, which you then approve through your own IRS online account with no paper form at all.

Common Reasons the IRS Rejects Form 2848

The IRS returns a form it can’t process rather than guessing at your intent. The most frequent problems:⁹

Missing signatures or dates. A missing date counts as a missing signature.
Vague tax periods on Line 3, such as “All Years” or “All future periods.”
Line 6 retention box checked but no prior power of attorney attached.
Missing representative credentials in Part II (designation letter, state, license or enrollment number).
Missing business title when a business entity is the taxpayer.

After You File

The IRS records the authorization in the Centralized Authorization File. The agency currently reports processing within one business day of receipt, though wait times have stretched to weeks during high-volume periods; current status is posted on the IRS “Processing Status for Tax Forms” page.¹⁰

Once recorded, your representative can act on your behalf for the listed matters and periods, and, if you checked the notice box on Line 2, will start receiving copies of your IRS correspondence.

Authorizations don’t last forever. The CAF system generally purges them seven years after the taxpayer’s signature date. Estate tax authorizations (Form 706) stay for 15 years. Student and law graduate authorizations expire after 130 days. Any authorization ends immediately once the IRS confirms the taxpayer’s date of death.¹¹

Revoking or Withdrawing the Authorization

A power of attorney stays in place until it’s actively ended. You can revoke it, or the representative can withdraw.¹²

Revoking as the Taxpayer

Write “REVOKE” across the top of the first page of a copy of the original Form 2848, add a current signature and date below the annotation, and mail or fax the marked copy to the IRS office listed in the Where to File chart.¹³ If you don’t have a copy of the original, send a written statement identifying the tax matters and periods, naming the representative whose authority you’re revoking, and including your signature and date. To pull everything at once, write “revoke all years/periods” rather than listing each period.

You can also revoke a prior authorization by filing a new Form 2848 for the same tax matters and periods. The new form replaces the old one automatically unless you check the Line 6 retention box.

Representative Withdrawal

A representative who no longer wants to act submits a written withdrawal. The simplest method is to write “WITHDRAW” across the top of a copy of the original form, sign and date below the annotation, and file it with the CAF unit that processed the original.¹⁴ The withdrawal must list all relevant tax matters and periods and include the representative’s current signature and date.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Treasury Department Circular No. 230
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7121 – Closing Agreements
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848 (PDF)
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative
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Internal Revenue Service. Preparation of Forms 2848 and 8821 and Their Uses
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative
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Internal Revenue Service. Submit Forms 2848 and 8821 Online
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Internal Revenue Service. Common Reasons for Power of Attorney (POA) Rejection
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Internal Revenue Service. Processing Status for Tax Forms
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Internal Revenue Service. De-CAFinating Your Client Authorizations
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Internal Revenue Service. Power of Attorney and Other Authorizations
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848
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Internal Revenue Service. De-CAFinating Your Client Authorizations