Form 2848 – Power of Attorney
The IRS Form 2848 is used when you need to declare someone you love or trust to become your power of attorney and help you with IRS matters. In most cases, this could be a family member, or it could be a friend or associate that you know and truly trust. The only way this form will be used is for the IRS, and you will not be able to use it for any other reason. There are two main parts to this form that seem to be tricky for many people. Part one is where you decide who will become the power of attorney that will represent you in all legal matters with the IRS and part two of this form has to do with the declaration of Representative. Before you start filling out IRS Form 2848, there are a few documents you should have in front of you.
The first document is your Social Security card, since this form requires that you have your social security card ready before you fill this form out, unless you already have this number memorized. If you are employed by somebody else however, you will need to enter your employer identification number instead of your Social Security number. Next, the person you plan on representing you as your power of attorney will need to enter their name, physical address as well as their phone number.
One tip when filling out the IRS Form 2848, is to read the instructions that are actually presented as a separate document but can easily be found online. The tax matters section is a section of this form that you will need to fill out that specifies the type of tax you are granting the power of attorney for. For example if you were to list “Income, 1040″ for calendar year “2006″ for this would mean income tax filed under the 1040 method when you filed in the year 2006. Another example would be “Excise, 720″ for “2006″ which would cover excise taxes filed under the 720 method in the year of 2006.
In part two of this form, you will need to enter a specific declaration code that will authorize the status of your declaration of representative. For example, if you enter the letter F in this field you’re designating a family member. However, there are different options in this form to enter letters from A which stands for an attorney to R which stands for an enrolled retirement plan agent. Overall, the IRS Form 2848 isn’t overly complicated to figure out. However, it is recommended that when you do fill it out, that you read the instructions that come with it since they will help you navigate through some of the fields that are a little tricky.