It's been over two months since I mailed the IRS a form 56 for each parent. I haven't heard back from the IRS.
Today, in what seems to be a miracle, a very-helpful IRS agent did the following during a call:
- Accepted the two forms 56 via FAX and added me to Mom's and Dad's accounts
- Accepted a form 8822 (change of address) via FAX and updated their accounts
So, now I should receive notices for them in the US mail, and I should be able to create online accounts for them.
I FAXed the forms using an online (paid) service, PamFax. It takes several minutes, but the agent said they arrived faster than usual - she was expecting to have to wait longer. I sent both forms 56 in a single four-page PDF. Oddly, all the fields in the first page of second form 56 arrived blank. I re-sent both pages of that one.
The call took 41 minutes. I'm not complaining - the agent was very friendly, patient and helpful. She didn't know whether they could accept the 8822, and had to put me on a brief hold while she got an answer. (And the hold really was brief - a minute or two!)
I spoke to three other agents today. Agent #1 insisted that form 56 is only for deceased people and that I had to use form 2848 (POA), and they don't accept faxes. This is incorrect. I asked to speak with a supervisor; he said they're not going to say anything different. I decided to just try again.
About 90 minutes later, I tried again. With agent #2, I ran out of time before I was able to send a FAX (I had to get to an appointment), but at least I learned it was possible to submit form 56 by FAX. Note that this must be done while you're on the phone with an agent, and they process it during the call.
In the afternoon, agent #3 first said form 2848 is required, then changed and said I can use form 56, but she insisted it cannot be submitted by FAX.
Agent #4 got it all done. When I described my experiences with agents 2 and 3, she said calls can get routed to people in different departments with different capabilities (i.e., some might not have FAX machines).
In between, I called 5 other times and got the outgoing message saying they're too busy, try again later.
Total time talking to agents was 83 minutes.
I'll report back after trying to create an online account.
I hope this helps!
