Form 2848 goes to one of three IRS fax numbers, and the right one depends on where you live. Send it to 855-214-7519 (Memphis) if you live in an eastern or southern state, 855-214-7522 (Ogden) if you live in a western or central state, and 855-772-3156 if you’re in a U.S. territory, a foreign country, or have an APO or FPO address and are faxing from inside the United States. From outside the U.S., the international number is 304-707-9785 (not toll-free).1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848 (09/2021) The IRS routes Form 2848 by the address on your most recent return, so use that address to pick the campus.
The IRS also warns that these fax numbers can change without notice. If you’re sending days or weeks after reading this, check IRS.gov/Form2848 under “Recent Developments” before you dial.
Memphis Campus: 855-214-7519
Use 855-214-7519 if you live in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, or West Virginia.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848 (09/2021)
Ogden Campus: 855-214-7522
Use 855-214-7522 if you live in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, or Wyoming.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848 (09/2021)
Territories, Foreign Addresses, APO and FPO
If you live in American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, in a foreign country, or you have an APO or FPO address, the form goes to the International CAF Team in Philadelphia. There are two numbers:1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848 (09/2021)
- Faxing from within the United States: 855-772-3156 (toll-free)
- Faxing from outside the United States: 304-707-9785 (not toll-free)
If you prefer to mail instead, the address for this unit is Internal Revenue Service, International CAF Team, 2970 Market Street, MS: 4-H14.123, Philadelphia, PA 19104.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848 (Rev. September 2021)
When the Regional Numbers Don’t Apply
Two situations pull Form 2848 out of the normal Memphis/Ogden/Philadelphia routing.
The first is a Line 4 filing. If you check the box on Line 4 marked “Specific use not recorded on CAF,” the authorization is not entered into the Centralized Authorization File at all. Instead, the form goes directly to the IRS office handling that specific matter, whether that’s an estate or gift tax proceeding, an employee plan determination, an exempt organization case, or another specialized matter.3Internal Revenue Service. Power of Attorney and Other Authorizations The regional fax numbers are the wrong destination for these.
The second is an active case with a named IRS employee. If a revenue officer, auditor, or Large Business and International agent is working your matter and gives you a direct fax number for their office, use the number they provided. Follow the agent’s routing over the general chart when both exist.
Faster Alternatives to Faxing
Fax is not the only channel, and for some filers it’s the slowest one. Two digital options are open.
The first is the IRS’s online upload portal, “Submit Forms 2848 and 8821 Online.” A tax professional signs in or creates an account, answers a short set of questions about the form, uploads a signed PDF, JPG, or GIF up to 15 MB, and gets an email confirmation. If the form has attachments, they need to be combined with the form into one file before upload, and each upload can hold only one form. Extras in the same file are rejected.4Internal Revenue Service. Submit Forms 2848 and 8821 Online
The portal has one meaningful advantage over fax: electronic signatures are accepted. A typed name in the signature block, a scanned image of a handwritten signature, a stylus signature, or a signature from third-party software all qualify. Forms sent by fax or mail still need a wet-ink signature. If you e-sign in a remote transaction where the taxpayer isn’t with you in person, you also have to verify their identity through a government-issued photo ID (by video or a self-taken photo), record their name, SSN or ITIN, address, and date of birth, and confirm the details against secondary documentation like a prior return or IRS notice.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848 (Rev. September 2021) And don’t submit the same form twice: if you’ve already faxed or mailed it, don’t upload it too.
The second option is Tax Pro Account. Attorneys, CPAs, enrolled agents, enrolled actuaries, and enrolled retirement plan agents can request a power of attorney digitally without filling out the paper form. When the taxpayer is an individual with a U.S. address and an IRS online account, the authorization posts in real time.5Internal Revenue Service. Tax Pro Account Tax Pro Account currently handles only individual taxpayers; business entity authorizations still go through a form submission.
Before You Send the Fax
The CAF unit rejects incomplete forms, and the pattern of common rejections is worth checking against your draft before it goes out:6Internal Revenue Service. Common Reasons for Power of Attorney (POA) Rejection
- Missing signature or date from either the taxpayer or the representative.
- Vague tax periods on Line 3. “All years” and “all future periods” are rejected; list specific years, such as “2022 through 2025.”
- Missing representative credentials: designation, jurisdiction, and the bar, certification, registration, or enrollment number.
- A business officer signing without a title.
- The Line 6 retention box checked without a copy of the earlier authorization attached.
Send a cover sheet with the fax, since the form carries an SSN or EIN and other sensitive detail. Keep the transmission confirmation from your fax machine or service. The IRS’s processing status page currently lists Form 2848 as processed within one business day of receipt, though the agency notes that fax, mail, and online submissions can run longer during heavy periods.7Internal Revenue Service. Processing Status for Tax Forms
If a representative needs to check on the status of an authorization or resolve an account issue after filing, the Practitioner Priority Service line is 866-860-4259. PPS assistors can also help a representative recover a lost or forgotten CAF number.8Internal Revenue Service. Practitioner Priority Service PPS does not handle international accounts; those calls go to 267-941-1000.