Hello! Has anyone heard the outcome of the decision to reject ineligible representatives filing a Form 2848 and how the determination letter applications will be affected? Last I heard, ASPA had contacted the TE/GE dept and it it had not yet made a determination. Anyone seen more recent news?

Thanks!

IRS announced that it will not treat as invalid any Forms 2848 that are improper, BUT it will REJECT them. Here is the blurb from the IRS News for Tax Professionals in this case, Tennessee, but each state has the same article).

"4. IRS Will Not Treat Invalid Forms 2848 As Disclosure Authorizations

Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative, is used to
authorize a person to represent a taxpayer before the IRS. This person
must be eligible to practice before the IRS-in other words, be an
attorney, CPA, enrolled agent, enrolled actuary, or one of the other
individuals identified on the form. (Unenrolled return preparers may be
authorized to represent taxpayers in a limited fashion-see Publication
470.)

Taxpayers occasionally submit Forms 2848 listing ineligible
representatives. IRS practice has been to treat these invalid powers of
attorney as tax information authorizations, which permit third parties to
receive information about the taxpayer's account but not to represent the
taxpayer before the IRS. This practice was permitted, but not required,
under the disclosure regulations.

Beginning January 1, 2004, the IRS will discontinue this practice and will
reject a Form 2848 listing an ineligible representative. The IRS is
taking this step to clarify that taxpayers should use the form for the
sole purpose of authorizing an eligible person to represent them before
the IRS. In addition, the IRS intends to discourage ineligible persons
from using the form in attempting to represent taxpayers. Form 2848 and
its instructions are being revised accordingly. Taxpayers should use Form
8821, Tax Information Authorization, if they want the IRS to disclose
their tax account information to a third party."

Hope this helps.
Theresa Lynn

From ASPA:

As we informed you on December 12, in ASAP 03-28, the Texas IRS office
announced in a newsletter that they would begin to reject Forms 2848 filed
by unauthorized representatives beginning in January. Since then, we have
had several meetings/conversations with officials in the Employee Plans
(EP) division of the IRS to discuss the significant ramifications of this
proposed change in policy. We have discussed several possible
solutions/alternatives to deal with this issue, including a delayed
effective date to cover the current determination letter process as well as
a more permanent solution to allow TPAs to continue to represent client
plans through future determination letter requests.

EP officials are clearly sympathetic to the concerns that we have raised
and they have been discussing these concerns with the Office of
Professional Responsibility, which is in charge of Form 2848. Although no
final decisions have been made, we are optimistic that these issues will be
resolved in a reasonably favorable manner. We hope to have a final answer
from the IRS fairly soon. Although we would have preferred to have had a
more definitive answer for you, we wanted to let you know as much as
possible before the holidays to help allay any concerns.

Happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year.

Brian Graff, Esq.
ASPA Executive Director