The Internal Revenue Service said that a qualified tax professional who has a Form 8821, Tax Information Authorization, on file may now request a client’s account transcript using the Transcript Delivery System.
Form 8821 must be on file with the
IRS’s Centralized Authorization File, or CAF, system naming the individual, not the individual’s business, as the appointee for the client, the IRS noted. Transcripts can be requested through the Transcript Delivery System if either Form 8821 or Form 2848 is on file with the CAF.
As a reminder, the IRS pointed out in an email to tax professionals Friday that users must meet the requirements of Circular 230 or be an Electronic Return Originator with five or more accepted returns in order to register and use the Transcript Delivery System, or TDS.
The IRS also noted in the same email that the TDS is no longer processing transcript requests for identity theft victims, but other options are available. In order to protect taxpayer information, the IRS is no longer processing transcript requests through the Transcript Delivery System in cases where an identity theft indicator has been placed on a taxpayer account.
Instead, the taxpayer will receive notice that a request was made for his or her transcript. The notice will instruct the taxpayer to contact the Identity Protection Specialized Unit at 1-800-908-4490. Upon authentication, the IRS will issue a transcript to the taxpayer. This change was communicated last December and implemented on Jan. 5.
A tax professional with a Power of Attorney can contact the IRS’s Identity Protection Specialized Unit when a TDS letter instructs his or her client to do so. Authentication of the client’s tax return and/or income information is required, however,. A tax professional must still call the Practitioner Priority Service for all other issues. The IRS said it is currently working on program changes that will eliminate the notice to a client when their tax professional requests a transcript on an account with an identity theft indicator.
