How to Complete IRS Form 6863: Section A, Rates, and Filing

To complete IRS Form 6863, the Invoice and Authorization for Payment of Administrative Summons Expenses, fill out Section A with your identifying information, banking details for direct deposit, and an itemized cost breakdown using the fixed federal rates, sign it, and send it with any receipts to the IRS employee who issued the summons. Section B is for that employee, not you. The form is short, but every field is mandatory, and a single blank line will bounce the invoice back and reset your payment clock.

Before You Start: Eligibility and What to Gather

Form 6863 is only for third parties summoned to produce records about someone else’s tax liability. A bank, credit union, brokerage, or other recordkeeper is the typical filer. Federal law bars reimbursement in two situations: when the taxpayer under investigation has a proprietary interest in the records, and when the filer is the taxpayer or that taxpayer’s officer, employee, agent, accountant, or attorney acting in that capacity at the time the summons was served.¹ A corporate controller producing her own company’s books during an audit of that company gets nothing. Reimbursement also requires satisfactory compliance; partial production or a refusal to hand over certain records can void the claim entirely.²

If you qualify, pull these items together before you touch the form:

Your full legal name and remittance address with zip code, matching how you are registered for tax purposes.
Your Federal Tax Identification Number (TIN or EIN).
The name and address of the taxpayer whose liability the summons concerns.
Your ABA routing number and bank account number. The Debt Collection Improvement Act requires federal payments by electronic funds transfer. Waivers exist for physical or mental disability, geographic barrier, or financial hardship, but they must be requested separately.
Itemized cost records: exact page counts, hours of search time, actual transportation charges, and any storage media costs, with receipts for actual-cost items.
A unique invoice number for your own tracking. Any number you choose is fine.

Filling Out Section A Line by Line

Section A is the invoice. You complete every line before signing.

Line 1, Payee’s Invoice Number: the reference number you assigned.
Line 2, Payee’s Federal Tax ID: your TIN or EIN. The form cannot be processed without it.
Line 3, Name and Address of Payee: your full legal name and remittance address with zip code.
Line 4, Taxpayer Name and Address: the person whose tax liability the summons relates to. This links your invoice to the correct case.
Line 5, Payment Method: your EFT direct deposit details, including routing and account numbers.
Line 6, Service/Financial Records Provided: the itemized cost breakdown. Rates are covered in the next section; get them right or the IRS will disallow the excess.³
Line 7, Printed Name: the authorized signer’s name.
Line 8, Title and Business Email: job title is required, email is optional.
Line 9, Signature: an unsigned form will be returned.
Line 10, Date Signed.
Line 11, Telephone Number: a contact number in case the IRS has questions.³

Every field is mandatory. Missing information forces the IRS employee to return the form, and the Prompt Payment Act clock restarts from the date the corrected version arrives, not the date you first sent it.

Section B Is Not Your Job

Leave Section B blank. The IRS employee who issued the summons fills it in after reviewing your invoice. They record the summons issue date, your compliance date, and the date they received a complete invoice. If they disallow any part of your claim, such as an hourly rate that is too high or time spent on non-reimbursable analysis, they note the disallowed amount and reason on the form before forwarding it for payment.³

The Rates You Must Use on Line 6

Line 6 is where invoices go wrong. The federal reimbursement rates are fixed by regulation and are lower than most organizations charge for records production in other settings. Bill at these rates from the start; anything above them gets disallowed.

Search Time

Personnel time spent physically locating and retrieving records is reimbursed at $8.50 per hour, regardless of what you actually pay the employee doing the work.³ Time spent analyzing records, giving legal advice, reviewing for privilege, or performing managerial oversight does not qualify. If records sit at an independent storage facility that charges you for retrieval, personnel time there is reimbursable at the same $8.50 rate. Direct costs of extracting electronically stored information also fall under search costs.

Reproduction

Paper copies are reimbursed at $0.20 per page, with two-sided pages counted as two pages.³ If you deliver the same records on storage media or by electronic transmission, you cannot also claim the per-page rate for those records. The storage media itself is reimbursable at your actual cost.

Transportation

Transportation to move personnel to the records or to deliver records to the IRS is reimbursed at actual cost, with receipts.

Attendance Fee if You Appear in Person

If the summons requires you to appear rather than just produce records, you are entitled to a daily attendance fee for each day of attendance, including travel time. The fee is the higher of $30 per day or the federal witness rate under 28 U.S.C. § 1821, currently $40 per day.² Overnight stays qualify for a subsistence allowance up to the federal per diem for that location.

Where to Send the Form

Send the completed, signed form and all receipts directly to the IRS employee who issued the summons. That employee will provide the mailing address. Do not route it to a general IRS processing center; the summons-issuing employee has to review and certify the invoice before it moves to the payment office.

Include receipts for actual-cost items like transportation and storage media. Fixed-rate items do not need separate receipts, but the math on Line 6 should be clear enough for the IRS employee to verify page counts and search hours.

Certified mail with return receipt requested is the safe choice. The date the IRS receives your invoice starts the Prompt Payment Act clock, and the certified receipt proves that date.

When You Get Paid

Once the IRS employee receives your invoice, internal procedure gives them seven calendar days either to return it for corrections or to forward the authorized invoice to the IRS Chief Financial Officer organization at the Beckley Finance Center for payment.³

The Prompt Payment Act then requires payment within 30 days of the later of two dates: when the agency received a complete invoice, or when it accepted your compliance with the summons.⁴ If the billing office fails to date-stamp your invoice on arrival, the 30-day count runs from the date on the invoice itself, which can work in your favor.

Miss the deadline and interest accrues automatically from the day after the due date until payment is made.⁵ For the first half of 2026, the Prompt Payment Act rate is 4.125% per year.⁶ Unpaid interest that sits for 30 days rolls into principal and compounds. You do not have to ask for the penalty; the payment office is required to calculate and pay it. Payment arrives by EFT to the account on Line 5. To check status, contact the IRS employee who issued the summons.

Mistakes That Delay Payment

The most common problem is a blank field in Section A. A missing TIN, an unsigned signature line, or missing taxpayer information triggers a mandatory return. Each round trip resets the 30-day clock, because the IRS counts from the date a perfected invoice arrives, not from your first attempt.³

The second is using the wrong rates on Line 6. Billing at your internal rates or an outdated federal figure guarantees partial disallowance and the confusion that comes with it. Use $0.20 per page and $8.50 per search hour from the start.

The third is claiming costs that fall outside the three reimbursable categories. Time spent reviewing records for relevance, consulting counsel about the summons, or preparing privilege logs does not qualify. Only the direct mechanical work of finding, copying, and moving the records is reimbursable.²

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 7610 – Fees and Costs for Witnesses
2
eCFR. 26 CFR 301.7610-1 – Fees and Costs for Witnesses
3
Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Manual 25.5.9 – Fees and Costs for Summoned Witnesses
4
Acquisition.gov. 52.232-25 Prompt Payment
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 U.S. Code 3902 – Interest Penalties
6
Federal Register. Prompt Payment Interest Rate; Contract Disputes Act