How IRS Representation Actually Works
Representation is a legal status, not a vibe. One signed form changes who the IRS is required to deal with — and everything downstream follows from it.
Form 2848: the switch
A Power of Attorney (Form 2848) filed with the IRS puts your representative between you and the agency. Notices route to the representative. Calls go to the representative. Deadlines are tracked by someone whose profession is tracking them. You stop improvising answers to a federal agency under stress.
Who may represent you
Under Treasury Circular 230, three credentials carry unlimited practice rights before the IRS: attorneys, CPAs, and Enrolled Agents. The EA license is the only one of the three issued directly by the U.S. Treasury, and it is national — one license, all fifty states, examination through appeals through collections.
What an engagement looks like here
- Everything in writing. You get analysis you can keep, check, and hold us to — not phone-call reassurance that evaporates by morning.
- Transcripts and record first. We pull your IRS account transcripts and read what the machine actually shows: balances, statutes, notice status, levy posture.
- The clock is mapped. Every deadline on your case — response windows, CDP rights, collection statute dates — goes on one calendar before strategy is chosen.
- The resolution is chosen from your numbers. Installment agreement, Currently Not Collectible, Offer in Compromise, penalty abatement, appeal — the facts pick the tool, not the sales pitch.
What we will not do
No promises of outcomes. No "settle for pennies" theater. Treasury rules — and plain honesty — forbid guaranteeing results, and any firm that guarantees one is telling you something about itself. What we promise is the process: licensed representation, in writing, with the law cited.