Representation and access
Before you can get a transcript, call PPS or answer a notice for a client, the IRS has to have your authorization on the Centralized Authorization File. These guides cover the two authorizations, the CAF, the online and fax routes, what the CAF unit rejects, the transcripts you can pull once you are on file, and the Circular 230 duties that come with representing.
CAF number: how practitioners get one, find a lost one, and keep it in good standing
What the Centralized Authorization File number is, how the CAF units assign it, how to recover a forgotten one and why a number can be suspended.
Tax Pro Account: how online POA and TIA requests work, and when you still need a paper form
The IRS's all-digital route for individual Form 2848 and 8821 authorizations: requirements, step by step, its limits and its side effects on existing authorizations.
Form 2848 vs Form 8821: which authorization you need, and what each one lets you do
Representation versus information access: who can be named, what each form authorizes, how the CAF processes them and when each is the right tool.
Why the CAF unit rejects a Form 2848 or 8821, and how to fix each problem
The five essential elements, the screening rules behind Letter 861C, designation-level traps and a checklist that keeps forms from coming back.
Revoking a power of attorney and withdrawing as representative: methods, effects and IRS processing
Every way an authorization ends: new forms, REVOKE and WITHDRAW annotations, written statements, Tax Pro Account withdrawals, death and specific-use forms.
IRS transcripts for practitioners: TDS, PPS, the SOR mailbox and what each transcript shows
Which transcript answers which question, how to get e-Services TDS access as a practitioner, delivery rules, masking, and PPS transcript limits.
How to read an IRS account transcript: transaction codes, reversals, statute dates and the patterns that matter
A working guide to the tax account transcript: the three-digit codes, reversal conventions, the dates that start the assessment and collection statutes, the codes that matter in a controversy, TC 971 action codes and masking.
Practitioner Priority Service (PPS): what it can do, what it will not do, and how to make a call count
Scope, authentication, call limits, faxing an unprocessed authorization, and where PPS sends collection, exam and AUR issues.
Circular 230 duties every representative should know: the subpart B rules in practice
Subpart B of 31 CFR Part 10 section by section, with how each duty shows up in exams, collection cases and CAF processing.
Who can represent a taxpayer before the IRS: unlimited, limited and special-case representation
Attorneys, CPAs, enrolled agents, actuaries, retirement plan agents, AFSP preparers, family members, officers, students and fiduciaries: what each may do.
Form 56 and representing a deceased taxpayer or estate: fiduciary notice, then power of attorney
Fiduciary versus representative, the June 2026 Form 56 line by line, death and existing authorizations, and disclosure to executors and heirs.
Third party designee and oral disclosure: the limited alternatives to a Form 2848
The checkbox designee, oral disclosure consent (ODC) and the oral Form 8821 (OTIA): scope, duration, how the IRS records each, and their limits.
e-Services and secure access for practitioners: ID.me, TDS, the SOR mailbox and related IRS tools
The IRS online tool set for professionals, the identity verification behind it, TDS access for attorneys, CPAs and EAs, and the help lines.
When the IRS contacts your client directly: IRC 7521(c), the bypass procedures and the exceptions
The default rules protecting representation, the exam and collection bypass procedures step by step, and what a representative can do at each stage.
The Office of Professional Responsibility: how referrals arrive, how a Circular 230 case proceeds, and the sanctions available
What triggers an OPR referral, what IRM 1.25.1 and 20.1.6.12 tell IRS employees about making one, the subpart D proceeding from complaint to appeal, burdens of proof, and censure, suspension, disbarment and monetary penalties.
The Taxpayer Advocate Service: the nine case acceptance criteria, what TAS will not take, how to file Form 911 as a representative, and when a Taxpayer Assistance Order is possible
The nine TAS case criteria with the IRM's examples, the categories TAS currently declines, Form 911 line by line for representatives, the contact and follow-up rules TAS imposes on itself, and what a TAO under IRC 7811 can and cannot order.
Forms, tools and templates
Form 2848 (power of attorney)
Every line of the January 2021 Form 2848, the five essential elements the CAF unit checks, and the mistakes that get it bounced with Letter 861C.
Form 8821 (tax information)
What Form 8821 lets a designee see, what it does not allow, each line of the January 2021 form, and the CAF rules that decide whether it is recorded.
Form 56 (fiduciary notice)
The June 2026 Form 56 and instructions, line by line, with IRM 3.13.5.32 on how the IRS records a fiduciary and why a decedent's Form 2848 stops working.
Form 4506-T (transcripts)
What each transcript on the April 2025 Form 4506-T shows, how to fill in each line, where it goes, and why practitioners usually pull transcripts another way.
Form 911 (Taxpayer Advocate)
The June 2026 Form 911, line by line, with the TAS case acceptance criteria from IRM 13.1.7 and what happens to collection while a TAS case is open.