HERBERT "LEY" MILLS: Again, welcome and thank you for joining us for today's webinar. Before we move along with our session, let me - let me make sure that you're in the right place. Today's webinar is "Understanding Third Party Authorizations - Power of Attorney Form 2848". This webinar, it is scheduled for approximately 57 minutes and tell you what, let me introduce today's speakers, Karen Brehmer and Brian Wozniak. They are Senior Stakeholder Liaisons and they are a part of Communications & Liaison division. They both work with tax professionals; they work with small business owners in their respected areas. They provide outreach and education and identifying ways that the agency can be more responsive to customer's needs. So, Karen, I believe you are the first one, so I am now turning this over to you. KAREN BREHMER: Great.

Thank you so much, Ley. I appreciate it and good afternoon or good morning, everyone. Just a quick update before we get into the agenda. Our webinar today is going to be 75 minutes, not 57 minutes. Those gosh darn numbers turned around on us. So, 75 minutes for today's webinar. Our agenda for today. This is the stuff we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about Form 2848 and some common mistakes that the IRS sees and how you can avoid them. We're going to talk about how to revoke or withdraw a POA. We're going to talk about how you can get a list of all the clients under your CAF number. We're going to talk about CAF numbers too. We'll talk about the checkbox authority and then deceased taxpayers and Form 56 and we do have time at the end for sure for your questions. So, let's proceed. Today, we're mostly going to be talking about Form 2848, but let's take a moment to explain the difference between Form 2848 and Form 8821. Form 2848 is used when the third-party is representing the taxpayer before the IRS; and you need to know that the person who's representing the taxpayer needs to be eligible to practice before the IRS. That includes enrolled agents, CPAs and attorneys and in some cases a person who is a participant in the annual filing season program. Form 8821 is used when the taxpayer wants to allow any individual, firm or organization to inspect or receive their confidential tax information. So, Form 8821 allows the IRS to give information to that person or firm about the taxpayer, but it's not the same as actually being able to represent the taxpayer; that's what Form 2848 is for. So now I'll turn it over to Brian and he'll start telling you more about Form 2848. BRIAN WOZNIAK: OK. Thank you, Karen. We're just going to take it right from the top.

The first few slides on Form 2848 focus on processing problems we often see. So we'll start with Line 1 of Form 2848. You must provide the taxpayer's name, address and Taxpayer Identification Number. If you plan to represent a married filing joint couple, you need to submit a separate Form 2848 for each spouse and finally, the last item listed on this slide, you can only enter one Tax Identification Number on Line 1. However, there are two circumstances where entering more than one TIN, Tax Identification Number, is OK. So the two circumstances; first, if the taxpayer is a sole proprietor who files a Schedule C and you're going to represent them for both income tax and employment tax matters, then you could enter both the Social Security Number and the Employer Identification Number of the sole proprietor on Line 1; and this would work for a sole proprietor with a DBA, Doing Business As. However, this will not work for an LLC, a Limited Liability Company, because LLC, it would have a different name and if you're in that scenario, I'm going to refer you back to the resource document that we sent for additional information. It had some very detailed information on power of attorney, powers of attorney for LLCs. So that's the first exception, sole proprietor. The second time that it would be OK to list more than one TIN on Line 1 is if the taxpayer is an estate and the Form 2848 is authorizing representation in connection to multiple forms to be filed by the estate such as the Forms 706, 1041 and 1040. So again, in this scenario, you could include both the decedent Social Security Number and the EIN of the estate on Form 2848. Now, moving along. The purpose of this next slide is to emphasize that a common reason for the IRS to reject a Form 2848 during processing, is missing taxpayer identification information. The IRS will attempt to research and locate the correct taxpayer, but if the IRS cannot clearly identify the taxpayer due to lack of information provided on the Form 2848, the IRS will reject the form to the taxpayer. Yes. I want to clarify that. We send it back to the taxpayer, not the power of attorney. So, you as the representative, you would not know that it was sent back to the taxpayer unless you ask the client. And here's a tip, if you call the IRS and we say the 2848 was not received, you may need to contact the client and ask if the IRS sent the form back to them. So. with that, that's Line 1. I'll turn it back over to Karen. Karen? BREHMER: Great, Brian. Thank you very much. So, let's talk about the representative information on Line 2. This is where you need to enter your name and address. You need to enter your CAF number, if you have one. CAF stands for Centralized Authorization File. If you don't have a CAF number yet, leave that line blank and a CAF number will be assigned to you and we do have more information about the Centralized Authorization File on the handout. You do need to also enter your PTIN if you have one. Now, keep in mind that not everyone who sends in a 2848 has a PTIN or needs to have a PTIN, so that's why we say enter the PTIN if that applies to you. I'd imagine most of us on the webinar today, you guys would probably have a PTIN and therefore you would enter it. We're going to continue here with Line 2. The most common reason for rejecting a Form 28 during processing to the CAF, is missing representative identification. So, here's a couple of tips. If you have a CAF number, enter it every single time. If you leave the CAF space blank, we might think that you don't have a CAF number and we might assign you another one and then you end up with two CAF numbers and that's not good. It's not the end of the world, but it's not good. Another tip in this section is to use the same name every time. If you have a name like Robert and you go by Bob, so if Robert is your legal name, then you want to use Robert every time. There again, we might end up issuing you another CAF number if you kind of go back and forth on the Form 2848 between using Robert sometimes and using Bob sometimes. So that's all for Line 2 and then we'll turn it back over to you, Brian. WOZNIAK: OK. Thank you. Moving on. Line 3, Acts Authorized.

You must clearly identify the tax matters and tax periods involved and the Form 2848 Instructions have excellent examples of how to really list the tax matters and tax periods involved. So again, I encourage each of you to read those Instructions, but let's look at the next slide.

Again, we're talking about indicating the specific type of tax. So, you have to label it as income tax, employment tax or payroll tax and then in the column right next to that, you must list the specific form number, such as Form 1040, 941 or 1120. The most common error that we see is entering, a POA would enter a non-specific tax matter or tax period. So, you cannot use statement such as "all periods" or "all few,") but you can list a range of tax periods. So, for example, you could state Form 1040 periods as 2015 through 2020 and that would be acceptable.

Similarly, for business accounts, you couldn't use the term "all quarters." That would not be acceptable unless you put a) specific year or years with it. List, for example, in a business account "2018 through 2020, all quarters" and that's acceptable because it's all quarters for that period, 2018 through 2020. The next item, the listing tax periods that would be available.

So first, you may list the current tax year on a power of attorney. Then you could list up to three future years and of course you could list any tax years or periods that have already ended as of the date that you signed the power of attorney. The issue we commonly see is with future periods. So, we're in August of 2020 right now so you could file POA for the 2020 tax year and then you could also list three future periods which would be 2021, 2022 and 2023, but you could not list the year 2024 because that's more than three years from December 31st of this year, 2020. So December 31st, this year is the end of the current year. You can go three years into the future beyond that and that's it -can't go any further. So with this, Ley, I think it's time for our first polling question. MILLS: Well, that sounds great to me there, Brian. Before we actually present the question here, I do want to mention one thing, that I just want you all know that the PowerPoint handout, that is available to download. Just simply go to the materials drop down arrow to download it and with that, let me go to the questions here. The first one is, which of the following is not acceptable for years or periods on Line 3? A is 2005 through 2018 or B, all periods, or C, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, or D, second quarter 2015 to third quarter 2018. So, take a minute click the radio button that best answers the question and I'll give you a few more seconds before you make your selection. OK. Let's stop the polling now and let's share the correct answer on the next slide. And the answer - oh, boy. Well, the answer is B as you can see and I just want to compliment every single one of you in the audience here because 93 percent answered it correctly. So that is fantastic. I will then turn this over to Karen.

BREHMER: Great. Thank you, Ley. OK, folks. Now let's talk about Line 4 which is for specific use. So what do we mean by Specific Use? Examples of specific use are when you are helping someone apply for an EIN or you're helping them with an ITIN application or maybe you're helping someone apply for tax exempt status, you're helping an organization apply for 501c3 and the like. There are several more examples of specific use and they're listed in the instructions for Form 2848. When you do a 2848 for a specific use, the deal is that it's not recorded on the CAF. So if you called PPS, Practitioner Priority Service, and you said I have a 2848 on the CAF that's going to help - to help my client get an EIN, the person at PPS is going to tell you that they can't see the POA on the CAF and the reason they're saying that is, again, when we get a 2848 for a specific use, it's not recorded on the CAF. So when you do have that situation, what you need to do is provide a copy of the 2848, each time you communicate with somebody at the IRS because the information is not going to be available to the IRS employee on that CAF database because it's not recorded there. So, the most common error that we see on this section is that someone checked the box on Line 4, but really what they meant to do, they meant to fill out Line 3 to designate the Acts Authorized. Sometimes we'll see a 2848 where they filled out both sections, they filled out Line 3 for Acts Authorized, they also checked the box for Line 4 for Specific Use and when both of those are filled out, we reject the POA and we send it back to the taxpayer. If there was a reason why you needed to do a 2848 for a specific use and you also needed to do one for certain types of tax and tax periods, you'd want to do separate 2848s for that. The specific use one is not going to be added to the CAF, but the one with certain tax forms and periods will be added to the CAF. So Brian, you're up next. Talk about Line 5. WOZNIAK: OK. We'll start with Line 5A and that is used to allow a representative to perform other acts in addition to the items listed on Line 3 which Karen just discussed. And if you look at the Form 2848 itself, you'll see that there are five check boxes to allow the representative to - and these check boxes, again, Line 5A, five Acts. The first one, number one, to access client records via an intermediate service provider. Now, intermediate service providers, these are privately owned companies and these companies offer subscriptions to their software that representatives can use to obtain transcripts and other tax information using that service through the intermediate service provider. Now, this would be a service in lieu of the representative obtaining the tax information directly from the IRS, generally using the e-Services, Transcript Delivery System. So that's the first check box. The second, the taxpayer can authorize their representative to disclose your information or the client's information to third parties. The next item is the taxpayer gives a representative the authority to substitute or add other representatives on the POA. That's a big one. And then the fourth, taxpayer can authorize a representative to sign a return and we're going to talk about signing the authorization for signing a return in just a moment. So bear with us a moment. The last item there is simply attach a form to specifically state, quote-unquote, "other acts authorized" where you could just put in specific reasons. Move on to the next slide. The most common error we see on Line 5A is not providing the reason that the client or taxpayer is authorized to sign the return because you can't just check the box. You have to write a specific statement and give reason as to why the rep is signing the return in place of the client and the 2848 instructions again explain the very limited scenarios when a representative might be approved to sign a return on behalf of a client and basically it's limited to three circumstances really. The first is, disease or injury related to the taxpayer, number two, the taxpayer is outside the U.S. and number three, if they have requested and received specific permission from the IRS allowing the representative to sign the return. So again, that's submitting the approval ahead of time and again, please refer back to the Form 2848 Instructions for guidance on when and how a representative can be granted the authority to sign a return. Now moving on to Line 5B. That is Specific Acts Not Authorized and here is where the taxpayer would write in what the representative is not allowed to do and one common example, probably the most common that I've seen at least, often used here is where the client states that a representative cannot negotiate a waiver. So, with that - oh, one other item I'm going to mention on Line 5B. It also includes a reminder that a representative is not authorized to endorse or otherwise negotiate any check.

So, don't even bother writing that in. I'm going to turn it back to you, Karen. BREHMER: OK.

Great. Thanks, Brian. OK. Let's talk about Retention and Revocations on Line 6. when we get a new Form 2848 and there's already one on file, the new one is going to revoke any earlier POA that's recorded for the same tax matters and tax periods, unless Line 6 is checked and a copy of the prior POA is attached. So, the most common error we see here is just that the required copy of the prior POA is not attached and when that happens, the new 2848 is going to be rejected and returned to the taxpayer. Well, that's all I have on Line 6. Brian, I'm going to toss it right back your way to tell us about Line 7 please. WOZNIAK: OK. I got it. Line 7, Signature to Taxpayer. Quite a bit of information here actually. So the first item I'm going to open up with, you can see it - the first bullet on the slide there. The IRS does not accept stamped or digital signatures, however, we do accept faxes. By digital, we mean, for example, a signature that is generated by usually a computer program like DocuSign, but a fax signature is OK because the taxpayer signed the form with a pen at some point and it's been faxed in and that's fine.

Now I'm going to take a moment and delve a little deeper into digital signatures because, number one, I just want to state that the IRS acknowledges the burden on taxpayers and the tax professional community to apply physical signatures to forms, especially during these unprecedented times. So, we at the IRS are working on a solution to accept digital signatures on both Forms 2848 and 8821 by early next year, early of 2021. The IRS will continue to work on the process of accepting digital transmissions of these forms in support of the Taxpayer First Act.

So be patient. There will be more to follow on digital signatures in the near future, but right now we do not accept stamped or digital signatures. Let's move on. Look at bullet number two on the slide - Signatures must meet the 45-day rule. If the taxpayer signs first granting the authority, then the representative must sign within 45 days from the date the taxpayer signed, thereby accepting the authority and by the way, that time frame is 60 days for authorizations from taxpayers living outside the United States. Now, if the representative signs first, the taxpayer does not have a required time limit for signing and I'm going to digress just a little bit here because there's already - we've already received several questions about the signature issues. One of them says why do the taxpayer and the rep have to sign the same day or why is it rejected when I sign afterwards, et cetera? There're really two scenarios. The first is if the taxpayer signs first. Again, in that scenario, taxpayer signs first, the rep has to sign within 45 days. There has - there's a timeliness issue there. Now, the flip side of that is, if you as a representative sign first, then it's kind of open-ended. The taxpayer does not have a required time limit. They can put that POA, sign it at any point in the future. So it really depends who signs first and the 45-day time frame applies if the taxpayer signs first. The other question - a couple others that have come in where people are stating that the CAF unit, the Centralized Authorization Files, are not accepting some of the faxed documents, that they signed with a felt pen and we thought it was a mechanical signature, things of that nature. Those are limited to the specific facts and circumstances. If it appears to be a digitally generated signature, again, using something like DocuSign, then we may reject it. It just - again, it depends on the facts and circumstances of each power of attorney. Let's move on to the next slide, OK? we've got it up here. This simply explains that if the POA is missing the taxpayer's signature, the power of attorney will be returned to the taxpayer. Again, it's going back to the taxpayer, not the representative. So with that, let's move on to Part II. Karen, you want to take that? BREHMER: I would be happy to take that. Thanks, Brian. OK. So the next section we're going to talk about is Part II, Declaration of Representatives. Let's go over what you put in each of these columns. For designation in column one, you enter the letter that corresponds to the type of third-party that you are. Earlier we mentioned CPA, EA, Attorney, we've mentioned certain people who have the annual filing season program. It could be a family member. I want to address one of the questions that came in. You could have a spouse who is doing a 2848 on behalf of the other spouse, so a husband for the wife, wife for the husband, husband for the husband, could be anything. For licensing jurisdiction, enter the state where you're admitted to practice or where you're licensed to practice. Here's a trivia question. If you are an enrolled agent, do you know what to enter for licensing jurisdiction? You enter IRS since the IRS manages the enrolled agent program. In the third column, you're going to enter your bar number, license number or enrollment card number. I mentioned people who have the annual filing season program record of completion. If that's you, you check the - you enter the letter that corresponds to unenrolled return preparer, but I would ask you again to look at the instructions for Form 2848 because there's lots more information there. What you're looking for is special rules and requirements for unenrolled return preparers. Again, that's in the instructions for the 2848 and it tells you when someone who has the annual filing season program record of completion can represent someone and when they can't. So I hope those instructions are helpful to you. Let's talk about the most common error on Part II. The most common error is that it's not signed by the representative or it's missing the jurisdiction or licensing information and another tip is that if there's more than one representative on the 2848, they need to enter their names in the same order on Part II as they entered their names on Part I. So several times now we've told you that when the form has an error, it's rejected and sent back to the taxpayer. The form - sometimes people ask well, why? Why can't you send it to the third-party? Well, the form can't be sent to the representative or the third-party because the proper representational authority is not in force. So you're not the POA yet, that's why we don't send it back to the third-party or the person who wants to be the POA. OK. That's for the top half of the form, Part I, but we're talking right now about Part II. So this area of the form is the exception.

The only time that the IRS will return an un-processable Form 2848 to the representative, is if the error is related to the representative somehow. That's the form is missing the designation level, the jurisdiction, the license number or the signature of the rep. I want to add one more thing and then I'm going to turn it over to Ley for our second polling question. I saw a question about what does the IRS do if the information about the taxpayer is not filled in correctly and we can't identify the taxpayer, where do we send it back? We would reject the form, but we wouldn't even know where to send it back to, so that one's going to go in the garbage can. We don't know who to send it back to and we can't send it back to the third-party. So Ley, I think this is a good time for our second polling question. MILLS: Karen, I think that is a very good time to do it. I just want to mention one thing quickly before we get into the question here is, you know that we have - well, you may have been - just kind of think my thoughts here. You may have had - if you need to refresh your computer - like in order to see the PowerPoint slides or the handout, just I guess the best thing we ought to do is just refresh the page where you're viewing the webinar, not your computer. All right. Let's go to the next question. Here's the second polling question. If the taxpayer signs first and the representative finds second, then the representative's signature can be no more than how many days after the taxpayer's signature? And this is a domestic authorization. A, 14 days, B, 30 days, C, 45 days or D, 30 days? Take a minute. Take a moment. Click the radio button that best answers the question and I will again give you a few seconds to think about it, make your selection and then we'll get the next - we'll see what the answer is. OK. Let's stop the polling and let's share the correct answer. And the correct response is C, 45 days and again, you all did an absolutely outstanding performance. This is outstanding, again it's in the 90s; we had 92 percent correct. So I tell you what, Brian, it is now in your hands. WOZNIAK: OK. Thank you.

Ley. We're going to transition a little bit and move on and discuss withdrawing representation.

A processed power of attorney will remain in effect until it is either one of three things: number one, revoked by the taxpayer, number two, withdrawn by the representative or number three, if it is removed in accordance with the established IRS retention schedules and I'm going to explain the revocation and withdrawal in just a minute, but let me explain the IRS CAF retention schedule first. Generally, CAF records purge seven years from the taxpayer signature date. So just automatically. Whatever date the taxpayer signed the POA, seven years later, it's purged.

Now, there are two exceptions to the seven-year purge time frame. First, authorizations for Form 706 matters, 706, they purge 15 years from the taxpayer signature date and as a reminder, Form 706 is the estate tax return. And then the second exception to the seven-year purge rule, is that student attorney and CPA authorizations, student CPA authorizations, those are only valid for 130 days from the taxpayer signature date. So those are the two exceptions and of course I should also mention that all authorizations expire on the death of the taxpayer and they will be deleted from the CAF database after the IRS receives verification about the date of death, usually from Social Security, the rep, survivors, surviving spouse, et cetera. Anyhow, moving along. Let's discuss withdrawing representation. OK. Some key items listed on this slide here.

Very straightforward. the request for withdrawing representation must: number one, be in writing, number two, list all tax matters and tax periods and number three, contain the current representative signature and date. If you have a copy of the original 2848 - and we have a couple of questions also we've received. I'm looking at them as they're coming in. So hopefully this addresses how to do it, the mechanics. So if you have a copy of the original power of attorney , you could simply write the word "withdraw" on the front of the original 2848. Put it right at the top, big letters and then you could sign it next to the original signature where you previously signed it and then fax that form into the CAF and we'll know to withdraw it and we just need the new signature and the word "withdraw." Now, if you do not have the original 2848, then you simply fax a statement to the CAF unit and you include the taxpayer's information, all their general entity information and again, you have to include the word withdraw - it has to specifically state that you're withdrawing your representation and in this case, you could use the term "remove all years/tax periods." So, either you use the original 2848, write "withdraw" or you send a separate statement to withdraw and include the taxpayer's information, remove all tax periods. And by the way, many powers of attorney of course have multiple representatives listed on it. So when you're withdrawing, each representative who is requesting withdrawal must sign and date the request. So with that, I'm going to turn it back to Karen who's going to talk about those CAF 77 listings. BREHMER: We always laugh when you say CAF 77. It's like wait, who even knows what a CAF 77 listing is yet? Let's talk about it.

Actually, before we talk about the CAF 77, I'm going to sneak in two quick answers to questions that have come in, to things I discussed a bit earlier. For people who have questions about the annual filing season program and when a person who has that, can represent someone on 2848, please look at the instructions for Form 2848. Another person asked about the registered tax return preparer program that the IRS had several years ago before we had annual filing season program. If you got the designation as a registered tax return preparer, again, please go to the instructions for 2848 and look at the rules for annual filing season program. OK. Now let's talk about the CAF 77 listing. So, I did see a couple questions about this in the Q&A tab - or questions so I hope this helps you out. What do you do if you want to withdraw your representation rights for a number of clients, not just onesie-twosie, but a whole bunch at the same time? Well, here's one thing is you can't withdraw using a listing of clients even if that spreadsheet is awesome. So again, even if you had a way, a spreadsheet for instance, where you keep track of all the people that you have a POA for, you can't send us that spreadsheet to ask to have your authorization removed for some of those taxpayers. What you have to do is ask for a CAF 77 listing. So what is that? Again, it's a complete - it's a listing of all the clients for a given representative and the way that you get a CAF 77 listing is to do a Freedom of Information Act request or a FOIA request. So, you might have a whole bunch of 2848s on file from all the years that you've been in business. Now, some of them would have been removed because of the retention schedule that Brian talked about, but the IRS recommends that you get this CAF 77 list periodically and review it and make any necessary changes. So we have a page on irs.gov with information about FOIA and how to request the CAF 77 listing and that resource is also on your resource document too. That page on IRS.gov is great. It tells you exactly what to do for a FOIA request to get a CAF 77 listing. And once we receive your request, it takes us about four to six weeks to process it and send that list back to you. So again, this CAF 77 listing is helpful if you need to verify all the current authorizations that you have on file with the IRS and maybe you need to determine clients that you no longer represent and you want to withdraw your authorization for them. Here's a good thing to know. If you are a practitioner who is retiring or going out of business, in that case, you can just submit a written statement to the CAF function. Write out a quick letter, sign it and date it and you can fax it to the CAF unit and all you're doing in that letter is you're requesting retirement of your CAF number. So to do that when you're totally out, you're not representing anybody anymore, you're retiring, you've sold the business, when you're doing that, you don't have to request that CAF 77 listing. So Brian, back to you for information about the checkbox authority. WOZNIAK: OK. The third-party designee or checkbox authority and by the way, I've switched some of my audio settings here. We were - the IT gremlins were in, messing around with our audio, so hopefully this is coming through a little bit clearer. So the third-party designee or checkbox authority is generally related to a recently filed tax return and this is where the taxpayer is authorizing the third party designee to: number one, provide the IRS any information that is missing from their return, number two, to call the IRS for information about the processing of that return or the status of their refund or payments submitted with the return or number three, to get copies of notices or transcripts related to their return. Now, this next slide explains that third-party designees can also be used to respond to certain IRS notices. Again, these are notices usually about the processing of the return. These are math error notices, offsets for other obligations, questions about the return preparation, et cetera. Now, the third - the second bullet listed on the slide there, the third-party designee authority, only lasts one year from the original due date of the return and that does not include extensions; one year from the original due date.

And finally, I should mention that the third-party designation is also valid for Form 1040-X, the Amended Tax Returns, if those amendment returns are filed within one year of the original due date and again, that's not counting extensions. Now, some helpful hints on the next slide. You should notify the CAF unit if you have a change of address and we have a couple of questions we've already received during this webinar about changing the address. So here you go. You simply - if you look at the Form 2848, you simply check the box on that Form 2848. It's on Line 2 where the representative's information is and you check the box that there's a change of address, change of telephone number or change of fax information, maybe all three of them changed. You check that box on Line 2 and the CAF system will be updated accordingly. Now, you can also send a separate letter or fax to the CAF unit to update your address and just be sure to include your name and your CAF number and the new address or the new phone number or fax number, et cetera. Now, if you lose and cannot remember your CAF number, you need to call Practitioner Priority Service. There're just too many scenarios we could get in there, but if you can't find it, you call, they'll verify a disclosure with you and get you your CAF. So, with that, Ley, I see our third polling question is on the horizon. Do you have something for us? MILLS: I certainly do and it's always be on the - on the horizon seeing this beautiful sun going down.

Anyway, here's the third question here. If you have a new mailing address, which one of these isn't - which one - try this again - which one of these is an appropriate way to inform the CAF unit? Is it A, send the IRS a new Form 2848 for every client showing your new address, B, send a letter, fax or mail to the CAF function with every client's identifying information, C, check the new address box on Form 2848 the next time you file Form 2848 or D, have your client send a letter to the CAF function informing them of your new address? So let me give you a few seconds here. Check it out. Answer the answer you feel is correct and we'll just give you a few more seconds. OK. Let's see what happens here. The correct response is C, check the new address box on Form 2848 the next time you file Form 2848. All right. Tell you what, Brian, we ended up with 79 percent correct here. Could you do a quick, brief overview a little bit before we go to the next - the following material? WOZNIAK: Absolutely. When you change an address, there's really a couple of things. You don't - number one, you don't need to send in a new POA for every client. You don't need to send in complete client listings of all the POAs you have on file. It's one of two things. You either wait until you're going to be submitting a new power of attorney. So you may have a change of address and you know you have a client that you're working with now, maybe you're in the interview, the engagement process and you're going to be filing a POA in the next week or two. So you simply - in that case, you could simply wait until you're prepared to submit a new power of attorney and then you check the box on Line 2 and once you check it, it's linked to your CAF number, so we update it for all the POAs you have on file.

That's if you have a new POA that you're getting ready to send in. If you don't have a new POA, simply send a fax letter to the CAF unit, include your information, the rep's information, the CAF number and updating the address, show the old address, the new address if you're changing fax number, phone number, et cetera and just send that to them, but they really need the CAF number. That's the critical point. So I hope that clarifies it, Ley and � MILLS: Yes. That was great � WOZNIAK: � I think we'll turn it over to Karen now. MILLS: That's right. Great information. BREHMER: OK. Thanks, Ley. Thanks, Brian. Hey, I had to switch my phone. I'm going to ask if you guys can hear me OK. Not everybody has to answer, but hopefully one person on my tech team will let me know. Our last topic for today � WOZNIAK: You're perfect. BREHMER: OK. Thanks, Brian. Our last topic for today is Form 56 and we get a lot of questions about this. So first I'm going to read what's on the slide. A fiduciary is treated by the IRS as if he or she is actually the taxpayer. Upon appointment, the fiduciary automatically has both the right and the responsibility to undertake all actions the taxpayer is required to perform. For example, a fiduciary must file returns and pay any taxes due on behalf of the taxpayer. So another way of saying all this is that the fiduciary stands in the shoes of the taxpayer. I'm going to talk more about this Form 56, but first I want to let you know about this one page on IRS.gov. It's also on your handout. It's deceased persons probate filing estate. That is an excellent resource and I do hope you will check it out. So Form 56 is used for several reasons.

It's used when someone has died. It can also be used when there is a trust or sometimes in a bankruptcy case, but for today, I'm just going to focus on how to use Form 56 when someone has died. So Form 56 tells the IRS who is handling the final affairs of the taxpayer who died and that person can sign tax forms that the taxpayer would have signed or signed Form 2848 that the tax - in the spot where the taxpayer would sign. All right. Let's go into some detail on Form 56 which was revised in December 2019. We're going to talk about Line 1A, Line 1B and Line 1D which is actually the one - the line that's new in December 2019. So when someone dies, sometimes there's a will and there's an executor and the executor is going to make sure that the final 1040 is filed and they're going to make sure that Form 1041 or Form 706, the estate tax forms, are also filed if those returns are required. The executor is going to sign Form 56 and check the box on Line 1A because they're indicating that it is an estate with a valid will and the court has appointed that person as the executor. It's easy when there's a will and there's an executor, right? But sometimes there's no will and there's no executor and you've dealt with this situation as a tax professional, haven't you? So I'm going to use this example for today. A woman died and she didn't have any children, so her niece is trying to do the right thing by getting that last 1040 filed for her aunt and the niece comes into your office and she asks you to help her with this. So the niece needs to fill out Form 56. You might use line 1B or she might use Line 1D. So the niece would use Line 1B, as in boy, if there was no will, but she went to court and the court assigned her to be the representative or the fiduciary for her aunt. The niece would use line 1D, as in dog, if there was no will, but she is the person who stepped up to be the fiduciary for her aunt. I'm going to read you the instructions for Line 1D. It says "check the box on Line 1D if you are the fiduciary of a decedent who died intestate, that is without leaving a valid will. Only check this box if there is no court appointed administrator or representative for the estate of the decedent and you are the sole person charged with the property of the decedent." OK. It's cool that there's this Line 1D that wasn't there before, but how does the niece know which box she's supposed to check? You won't like this answer maybe, but the answer is that this is a matter of state law, not federal law. So we can't tell you today what the laws are in every state, so we can't tell you what box she would check as far as the laws go in your state. So in some states, the law says that the niece is required to go to court to be appointed as the fiduciary or representative of her aunt and she has to go to court even if there's not much property or there's no property. She still has to go to court. In other states, the niece does not have to go to court to be appointed. So if there's no will and she's just trying to do the right thing and take care of stuff, she can do that without going to court. So if you want to help the niece or maybe you want to help other clients who come into your office with this situation, you might want to find out about what the rules are or the laws are in the state or states where you practice and this might mean that you call the probate court to find out what the laws are or maybe you would talk to an attorney who handles estate matters and is knowledgeable about the laws in your state. And once Form 56 is filled out and sent to the IRS, that lets the IRS know why this person is signing Form 1040 for the person who died or maybe they're signing Form 2848 in the spot where the taxpayer would sign if they were still alive. So one more quick thing and then we'll get to our last polling question. I don't mean to say that whenever Form 56 is filed, Form 2848 also needs to be filed. A fiduciary can do Form 56 and maybe there won't be any need for Form 2848. I'm just saying that if you as the tax professional, need to get information from the IRS in order to prepare those final tax returns, you'll need to file Form 2848 and in order for the IRS to process Form 2848 for the decedent, we need Form 56 because that tells us why this person is authorized to sign the 2848 in the spot where the taxpayer would sign if they were alive. So I hope that helps and Ley, I will turn it back over to you. I think we have time for one more polling question. MILLS: Ah, yes, you are right there, Karen. We do have time for one more polling question. So audience, our final polling question is the checkbox authority lasts, A, for one year from the due date of the return, including extension, B, until the assessment statute expiration date, C, until it's withdrawn by the representative or D, for one year from the due date of the return, not including extension. So let's take a couple of seconds. Check the radio button to the best answer and we'll give you a few more seconds here. OK. We're going to stop the polling now and let's share the correct answer on the next slide. And the correct response is D, for one year from the due date of the return, not including extension. OK. Karen or Brian, we need to address this one a little bit here. We had 63 percent doing this correctly. WOZNIAK: OK. Well, that was my slide. BREHMER: I'm going to pass it over to you, Brian. WOZNIAK: Yes. I'll take that one unfortunately. A couple of items. The checkbox authority again, the third-party checkbox designation. It's just a very clear-cut item and maybe the wording in the answers for A versus B were misleading, but the checkbox is only valid for one year from the original due date of the return. If it's April 15th - sometimes we have due dates of course that fall on a weekend, Saturday, Sunday or a holiday. So it could be April 16th, 17th or 18th or something like that. But the general rule is it is - for the 1040 series, it is one year from that original due date. It does not include any extensions filed, anything like that. It's flat one year from the original due date, no extensions, nothing like that at all and again, it's generally related - and the reason it is only valid for one year, some of the - if you look at Thompson or some of the other sites, is because it's generally related to the processing of the original return. Are there problems with the original return, math error, is it an error resolution, are there questions on the refund, the payments, et cetera? And I did state, of course, it is good for amended returns that are filed within that one-year window as well, but it is one year from the original due date, not including extensions, Ley. MILLS: Well, I appreciate that additional information and I appreciate all the - all this information is certainly useful for the attending practitioners here. So I believe, Karen, I'm now turning this over to you. BREHMER: Yes, you are. OK. We're going to tell you about some of these resources that are in the handout. There's a link to information about this Centralized Authorization File and Authorization Rules, so please check that out. There's also a Publication 4019. It's a great publication. It's just two pages. I will give you a warning. On page one, it has fax numbers for the CAF unit. That publication has not been updated in a while, so please do not rely on the fax numbers on page one of that pub for your - where to fax the 2848. But the publication has a chart on page two and the chart is what's valuable. It has information about Form 2848, Form 8821, the checkbox authority, oral authority. All that is on that chart on page two of that pub. There's also really good information on irs.gov about understanding tax return preparer credentials and qualifications. And as far as Practitioner Priority Service, I always refer people to the page on IRS.gov that has the phone number and info for PPS and that's because on irs.gov, you will see the menu that you hear when you call PPS. So if you're like me and you get confused because you don't know when you're supposed to press "2" or "3" or "4", it helps me to see the menu in print as I'm listening to it on the phone. Helps me know what number to press.

So check that out on IRS.gov and there's lots more resources in that handout. We hope you'll check it out. And Ley, that's all we have on that part. We'll turn it back over to you. MILLS: And thank you, Karen. Thank you very much and hello, everybody. It is me, Ley Mills, and I will be moderating the question-and-answer session. Before we actually start the Q&A session, I want to thank everyone for attending today's presentation, Understanding Third-Party Authorizations - Power of Attorney, Form 2848. Now, earlier, I did mention that we want to know what questions that you have presenters - to our presenters. So here's your opportunity. If you haven't input any questions, there's still time. Go ahead and click on the drop-down arrow next to "ask question" field, type in your question and click "send." Karen and Brian are staying with us and answering your questions. One thing before we actually start. We may not have enough time to answer all the questions that have been submitted, but let me know, let me assure you that we will answer as many as time allows. If you're participating to earn a certificate and related continuing education credit, you will qualify for one credit by participating for at least 50 minutes from the official start time of the webinar. So in other words, the few - a few minutes before we get started on the chatting, unfortunately that time does not count towards the 50 minutes. So let's get started so we can get in as many questions as possible and tell you what, let me start off here one. Karen, here's one and you might be able to address this. For fiscal year companies, could you tell us how to list the periods needed for 1120 for fiscal year ending March for the Form 1120? BREHMER: I think on the Form 2848 when it says periods, you would say fiscal year ending March 31st, 2019, March 31st, 2020, March 31st, 2021. That might be overkill to say fiscal year ending March 31st, but it's clear. It helps the person who's processing that 2848 know what you're going for. So I would use year and month and date. Hope that helps, Ley. Hope that helps our audience understand that issue. MILLS: Well, that certainly sounds good to me. Let's see - let's just find something for Brian here. Tell you what, Brian, here's one. Can you give us any idea of processing time for the CAF units to process 2848 and 8821? WOZNIAK: I can, Ley. It's going to be a little bit of a lengthy answer.

The processing time is really the issue we're talking about with 2848s and 8821s for that matter, but I think most of the representatives are looking at the 2848. OK. Folks, listen.

We are in unprecedented times here. All of you realize what has transitioned over this past year going back to March with the COVID-19 pandemic, IRS operations temporarily slowing down, shutting down, however you want to frame it. You can go to our mission critical site for that.

So as far as the processing time, number one, I want to open and just clearly state that the IRS is diligently working to reduce the CAF backlog of powers of attorneys in process and third-party authorizations. So we're working it. We're well aware of the issue. We've issued many communications on that. Due to site closures relating to the COVID-19 concerns, we are currently exceeding our five-business day target for approval. So generally, it would be - if you submitted a power of attorney, it would be posted and on the system within five business days.

We are going beyond that. Our current time frame for authorization approval is approximately 15 business days. So please consider the additional approval time right now and plan accordingly and we request that you do not submit duplicate authorizations because duplicate filings are only going to cause further delays. We are committed to improving the time it takes to process requests and we expect to have full staffing up in place very soon and we will reduce the wait time and get back to the normal five business day processing time. But in the - for now, you can still visit, like I said, the IRS operations during COVID-19 webpage on IRS.gov. It has the latest status on all of our critical services and I have seen - there's quite a few questions, folks. We've received hundreds from this webinar, but there's quite a few on the processing time. Someone's saying they submitted a POA July 21st. They're still not able to get transcripts. Should I send another one? A lot of questions about resubmitting the form. In many of those circumstances, yes. So, I'll take that one for example. Submitted a POA July 21st and they're not able to get the transcripts on e-Services yet. In that scenario, my personal recommendation, without having the ability to research the account, look at the facts and circumstances, is yes; it's beyond the 15 business day-time frame, something's up. I would recommend that representative call Practitioner Priority Service. See if the POA is there, see if it's in processing, et cetera. There is, as I also mentioned, a possibility, if the POA is incomplete, we may have sent it back to the taxpayer, but again, all things considered with what's happened the last six months, chances are we probably have it and it's in processing. So before sending any duplicates, I would recommend calling Practitioner Priority Service. And Karen, I don't know if you want to add anything on to that or did I miss anything? BREHMER: No.

No, you've got it. That's the answer. WOZNIAK: OK. All right, Ley. Tee one up for Karen.

MILLS: Always good to - good suggestion there, Brian. I have a question, Karen. I don't - I don't know if this is going to be an actual answer or not, but it's just - they just want to know if there's any possibility. Do you - do you think there will ever be an online process of obtaining an approved power of attorney? I don't know about this one BREHMER: The answer is I hope so. The reason I wanted to try to address this question is just to let you guys know, you gals know that the IRS has heard you loud and clear. We know that practitioners want an online process for submitting a power of attorney form. Some of you may remember we had one years ago and then we stopped using it and you've been wondering ever since then when we're going to get something back again. I am really hoping that as part of the Taxpayer First Act, where the IRS has been asking taxpayers and tax practitioners for suggestions of how we can make things better, that we - in stakeholder liaison, we certainly have sent up your request up the chain of command to say that's what they're asking for, they're asking for an online system. So I'm not in a position where I can promise it, but I am in a position where I can tell you we heard you loud and clear, we have asked for it and all of us can cross our fingers and hope that we get an online system as part of the Taxpayer First Act and trying to make things better for taxpayers and tax practitioners. I hope that helps and I'll toss it back your way, Ley. MILLS: Thank you and great information, Karen. Great ideas and your opinions, as everybody has. So we actually have time for one more and guess who I'm going - I'll be sending this to? Brian. Here's a question for you. I faxed Form 2848 to the IRS on July the 14th, 2020. However, even today I cannot access that client's transcripts online. Should I re-fax the Form 2848 or wait longer?

WOZNIAK: I would recommend - and again, we just kind of went through that, all of our delays � MILLS: Right. WOZNIAK: � site closures with COVID-19 and the 15-business day processing time.

Obviously in this scenario, they are past that 15 business day processing time. I would recommend that they start with Practitioner Priority Service and if you folks ever need the number, simply go to IRS.gov, do the keyword search in the top right and type in "Practitioner Priority Service". I'm thinking most of our representatives on the phone already have that on speed dial, but it's just a matter of time. Everyone be patient. We're going to get the backlog caught up and be back to normal processing times here very, very soon. Follow us on irs.gov and we'll let you know, MILLS: Yes. That sounds great, Brian. Unfortunately, everyone, we are kind of running out of time here, so that's all the time we have for the - for the questions. Now, I want to thank Karen, I want to thank Brian for sharing their knowledge, their expertise, for answering your questions. Now, before we close the Q&A session, Brian, what key points do you want to - do you want the attendants to remember from today's webinar? WOZNIAK: Oh, gosh.

Thanks, Ley, and the key points, all of our participants can just see that they're clearly laid out on the slide there and it's really a matter of just following the instructions and the mechanics of the form. Use the Form 2848, by the way, of course the basics, to authorize an individual to represent you before the IRS. Make sure that the 2848 has all the required representative and taxpayer information on the form. It needs to be complete and correct.

Specifically indicate the type of tax and tax period on the Form. We talked about not using all future years, things like that. Those statements are not acceptable. You have to list the type of tax and the tax period and make sure, of course, that both the taxpayer and the representative sign and date the form. With that, Karen, how about some key points on what you discussed?

BREHMER: OK. Can do. So we want - we want to let you know to use CAF 77 listing to review and remove your authorization. We hope you learned that a fiduciary is treated by the IRS as the actual taxpayer and to use Form 56 to tell the IRS who the fiduciary is and please check out that page on IRS.gov about deceased persons if you are helping someone who's taking care of the final matters of someone who died. And with that, back to you, Ley. MILLS: Thank you very much, Karen. And audience, we are planning additional webinars throughout the year. To register for an upcoming webinar, please visit irs.gov, keyword search is "webinars" and select the "webinars for tax practitioners" or "webinars for small businesses." When appropriate, we will be offering certificates and CE credits for upcoming webinars. We invite you to visit our video portal at www.irsvideos.gov. You can view archived versions of our webinars. Continuing education credits or certificates of completion are not offered if you view an archived version for any of our webinars on the IR web - try this again - IRS Video Portal. Again, a big thanks to Karen, a big thanks for Brian for a great webinar and for sharing your expertise. I appreciate that. I also want to thank you, our attendees, for attending today's webinar, Understanding Third-Party Authorization - Power of Attorney Form 2848. If you attended today's webinar for at least 50 minutes after the official start time, you will receive a certificate of completion that you can use with your credentialing organizations for one possible CPE credit. The time we spent chatting before the webinar, unfortunately that cannot be counted toward that 50 minutes. If you're eligible for continuing education from the IRS and you registered with your valid PTIN, your credit will - it'll be posted on your PTIN account. If you're eligible for continuing education from the California Tax Education Council, your credit, it's going to be posted on your CTEC account as well. Also, if you registered from the Florida Institute of CPAs, your participation information will be provided directly to them. If you qualify and unfortunately you have not received your certificate or your credit by September the 10th, please e-mail us to CL.SL.Web.Conference.Team@IRS.gov and obviously you can see that same address on the - on the slide. If you're interested in finding out who your local stakeholder liaison is, you can send us an e-mail using the address shown and we'll send you that information. We would really appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to complete a short evaluation before you exit. If you'd like to have more sessions like this one, let us know. If you have thoughts on how we can make them better, please let us know that as well. If you have any requests for future webinar topics or, let's say, pertinent information that you would like to see in our IRS fact sheet, Tax Tips or Frequently Asked Questions on the irs.gov, please, please include your suggestions in the comments section on the survey. Click the survey button on the screen to begin. If it doesn't come up, check to make sure you disabled your pop-up blocker. It has been absolutely a pleasure to be here with you all. On behalf of the Internal Revenue Service and our speakers, we'd like to thank you for attending today's webinar. It is important for the IRS to stay connected with the tax professional communities, also individual taxpayers, industry associations, as well as federal, state and local government organizations. You make our job a lot easier by sharing the information that allows for proper tax reporting. Thanks again for your time and your attendance. We wish you much, much - let me try this again - a great success in your business and practice. You can exit the webinar at this time. Thanks, everybody.