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“I received an email from Kara at the office letting me know that an erroneous IRS letter was coming my way for an issue with my return. She asked if I wanted to have Ryan call the IRS and get it corrected or if I wanted to handle it myself and the last thing I wanted to do, or had even had time to, was talk to the IRS. Ryan called and had the correction made in about 15 minutes. I got the letter the next day and knew it was already dealt with.”
“My husband and I pay quarterly income taxes and this year while putting together our return Stacie let me know that while we thought we had made all four payments we had in fact missed one. Knowing what payments I made saved us from getting a letter saying our return was incorrect and that we had more taxes due. I’m so glad she was able to watch out for that ahead of time.”
“My mother has dementia and is unable to get her tax return information sorted on her own each year which means my sister and I are the ones scrambling to find all of her forms. Lincoln Tax let us know that mom had signed a Power of Attorney with them that allowed them to see her income transcripts and we were able to assemble her return based on that information and the other forms we had in hand. Having that was a God send because we wouldn’t have had it all without it.”
This is just a small sample of the feedback we’ve gotten from clients who have a Form 2848 Power of Attorney with us. In 2020 we sent out Power of Attorney forms to our clients to help us navigate through all the Covid payments and upfront Child Tax Credit deposits. Remember all of those? Those forms allowed our office to accurately submit returns and saved our clients hundreds if not thousands of dollars in taxes. Not to mention it probably negated our clients from receiving numerous letters and notices as well.
Like all things though, that ability is finite. Powers of Attorney are only good for a certain period of time before they have to be renewed. For those who signed theirs in 2020 that expiration date ended with the completion of your 2024 tax return. In order to maintain that super power for our clients we will be re-issuing Form 2848 to all of our clients towards the end of July.
The IRS has made some great strides in the past four years due to the overwhelming amount of people completing this form for their tax preparers. We are now able to utilize electronic signatures for this form where before they needed to be wet signed by our clients. If you are a client that utilizes our Canopy portal for your tax return we will send you your forms for e-signature. Signing them is just like e-signing your tax return. You’ll receive an email letting you know they are there, you’ll click the link to access the document, type in your name, and hit submit. Done. No files to download or upload. If you are a client that does NOT use our Canopy portal we will mail them to your home address on file and you will need to sign them and return them to us. Included with your forms will be a return envelope with postage included. We really want to eliminate any barriers for our clients to complete these.
What does the Form 2848 Power of Attorney do?
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- It allows us to see your IRS transcripts. In other words we can see exactly what the IRS has on file for you like estimated payments, income documents, and prior year returns (which can be vital to clients if they misplaced a return or don’t have access to one).
- It allows us to call the IRS on your behalf. We have a phone number for the IRS that is only available to tax preparers and we typically can reach an IRS agent to resolve issues in under 5 minutes. It doesn’t just help with phone calls either. Should you ever be audited (fingers crossed you don’t) it allows us to speak directly to your auditor and discuss the matter with them.
- It is required that any letter or notice sent to you also have a copy issued to us as well. In the past we’ve received these before clients do and are able to begin resolving them before that letter ever darkens your mailbox.
What the Form 2848 Power of Attorney does NOT do!
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- We can’t make life or death decisions for you. It does NOT give us any medical or financial directive for you. We can’t pull your plug or manage your bank accounts.
- We can’t receive your refunds, sign your returns, or make payments on your behalf.
- As said before, it does not last forever. Power of Attorneys can end at any time whether by your choice or ours. They naturally expire on their own, hence the renewal, but should you decide to leave our practice you can file another Power of Attorney with your current preparer and that will end ours. We can revoke our access to it as well which severs the relationship.
We highly recommend all clients complete this form. If you have any questions or reservations about it though please let us know.
