logo
Patrick Cawley · Jul 23, 2025 · 4 min read

Power of Attorney and the IRS

If you are managing the life of a family member, you are busy and it can seem overwhelming. You are monitoring prescription medications, arranging a social calendar, ensuring your family member is eating, and paying bills. Your power of attorney will be a crucial part of handling so many adult responsibilities for another person. It allows you to stand in the shoes of your family member and do the things that they can no longer do.
Life must go on, and life comes with many responsibilities. The responsibilities that you handle for another person may change as the person’s needs change. But Benjamin Franklin said it best: nothing is certain in life, except death and taxes.
Even if your family member’s health declines, the obligation to file an income tax return does not go away. You will need to sign the tax return for the person under your care. IRS rules only allow you to sign a tax form on behalf of a family member if the family member is unable to sign the form because of illness or incapacity.
Will you be able to do that with your power of attorney? Not entirely. Federal government agencies do not automatically accept a power of attorney.
Here are the steps that you should take to ensure that your family member satisfies the IRS. You should take these steps as soon as possible and not wait until the deadline for filing a tax document is upon you.
Step One: The first thing you will need to do is confirm that your power of attorney even allows you to handle tax matters for your family member. Early on in the power of attorney document, it should say who is empowered to act on behalf of the person needing care.
If that person is you, and you can see that your family member signed it in front of a notary and met other requirements of state law, then you need to read the rest of the document. The “powers” contained in the power of attorney spell out what you can do on behalf of the person under your care. Look for language that says you have the authority to handle tax matters.
Step Two: You will submit your power of attorney document to the IRS, but you have to complete IRS Form 2848. The goal is for the IRS to recognize you as your family member’s representative for tax matters. In Part I of the form, you will enter your family member’s information as the taxpayer and your information as the representative. This information will include the name, address, and taxpayer identification number which is usually a Social Security number.
Step Three: It will be important to enter on IRS Form 2848 the tax forms that you will be completing for your family member. For income tax returns, you will enter Form 1040 and the tax years that your power of attorney allows you to handle.

Step Four: Once you have completed IRS Form 2848, attach your power of attorney document to the form and sign Form 2848. If your family member is actually able to sign the form, then the family member should sign it. Otherwise, sign your name for yourself and sign as POA for your family member. If a court has appointed you as guardian or conservator for your family member, there may be a different form – IRS Form 56.
Step Five: After you file Form 2848, the IRS will process the form and add you as the representative in the taxpayer’s account. Once the IRS approves you as the representative, you may sign any tax form on behalf of your family member. You will sign IRS tax documents like this: [Family Member’s Name], by [Your Name], Attorney in Fact. The words “Attorney in Fact” mean the same thing as “POA” or “Agent.” It means that you are acting on behalf of the person under your care.
Of course, the IRS is not the only government agency where you will be filing tax returns or seeking tax information from previous years. You will also file an income tax return in your state. State agencies that receive tax returns tend to have their own form that is just like the IRS Form 2848.
For example, Pennsylvania’s Department of Revenue has Form REV-677, New York has Form POA-1, Illinois has Form IL-2848, and California has Form FTB 3520-PIT. Check with your state’s tax agency for the specific form needed to handle confidential tax matters for the person under your care.
If you hire an accountant to help with tax returns, the accountant will know about these forms. The IRS and state tax agencies have phone numbers you can call and websites that you can visit to get more information.
Patrick Cawley www.KeystoneElderLaw.com
26
BACK