How to Fill Out Form 56 for a Deceased Person

To fill out Form 56 for a deceased person, you enter the decedent’s name, Social Security number, address, and date of death; add your own name, address, and taxpayer ID as fiduciary; check the box that matches the source of your authority (testate estate, intestate estate, intestate with no court appointment, or trust); list every tax form and tax year your authority covers; sign and date; and mail the form, with a current copy of your court letters, to the IRS service center that handles the decedent’s returns. The form is titled “Notice Concerning Fiduciary Relationship,” and filing it is how the IRS learns you are legally standing in the decedent’s place for tax purposes.¹

What to Have in Front of You Before You Start

Gather the paperwork first. Going back to hunt for a date or a case number mid-form is how errors get introduced.

For the decedent, you need the full legal name exactly as it appeared on the last tax return or Social Security card, the SSN or ITIN, the last known address, and the date of death. The date of death goes on Line 2a.

For yourself, you need your full legal name, your SSN or ITIN, and a reliable mailing address. Whatever address you put on Form 56 is where the IRS will send every future notice about the decedent’s tax accounts, so use one you check.

You also need proof that you actually hold the authority you’re claiming. If a probate court appointed you, that means a current certified copy of your Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (no will). The instructions require the letters to be current, so pull a fresh certified copy from the court close to the date you file.² If you’re acting under a trust rather than a probate appointment, attach the pages of the trust instrument that show you as trustee.

If there was no court appointment and you’re proceeding informally because you have possession of the decedent’s property, note that this is a narrower route and will limit what you can do compared with holding court letters.

Part I: Identifying the Fiduciary Relationship

The top of Part I is straightforward biographical entry. Fill in the decedent’s name, address, and identifying number in the taxpayer block, then your name, address, and identifying number in the fiduciary block.

Below that, the form asks how you came to be the fiduciary. Check exactly one box:

Testate estate, if the decedent left a will and a court issued Letters Testamentary.
Intestate estate, if there was no will and a court issued Letters of Administration.
Line 1d, if the estate is intestate and no court has appointed anyone but you are in possession of the decedent’s property.
Trust, if your authority runs from a trust document.

If a court appointed you, enter the name of the court, its location, and the case or docket number in the spaces provided.

Listing the Tax Forms and Years Your Authority Covers

This is the section that decides what the form actually gives you power over, so be complete. The IRS will honor your fiduciary status only for the forms and periods you list.

For a typical deceased-taxpayer situation, that usually means at least:

Form 1040, for the decedent’s final individual income tax return. The tax period is the calendar year of death.
Form 1041, for the estate’s own income tax return, if the estate is going to earn more than $600 in gross income in any year after death.³

Add Form 706 if the estate may owe federal estate tax, and Form 709 if the decedent left gift tax returns outstanding. Listing everything relevant up front is easier than filing an amended Form 56 later when a form you didn’t think about turns out to be in play.

For each form you list, enter the specific year or years. Blanket entries invite processing delays.

Signing the Form

Sign and date the form yourself. Your signature certifies that you actually hold the authority you’ve described and that the information is accurate. For a trust, the trustee signs.

Where to Send Form 56 and When

Mail the completed form, together with your court letters or trust pages, to the IRS service center that handles the decedent’s tax returns. The correct address depends on the state where the decedent lived and is listed in the Form 56 instructions.⁴ If you’ll be handling several form types and one is Form 1040, use the center that processes the Form 1040.

Tax professionals can also file Form 56 electronically through the IRS Modernized e-File platform.⁵ If an accountant or enrolled agent is helping you, ask whether they can submit it that way.

File Form 56 before, or at the same time as, the first return you sign for the decedent. A return signed by someone the IRS has no fiduciary record for gets rejected or delayed.

When Co-Fiduciaries Are Named

If a will names co-executors, or a court appoints more than one administrator, each fiduciary files a separate Form 56.² One form listing two names doesn’t satisfy the requirement. Each co-fiduciary files individually, referencing the same decedent and the same case number, and mails to the same service center.

Part II: Ending the Fiduciary Relationship

The relationship you create with Form 56 doesn’t lapse on its own. It stays open until you notify the IRS that it’s over, which means notices about the decedent’s accounts will keep arriving at your address indefinitely if you skip this step.

To close it out, file a new Form 56, complete Part II, check the box indicating that the fiduciary relationship has ended, and enter the date your authority terminated.⁶ If someone is succeeding you, note that as well; the successor files their own Form 56 to establish their own authority. Send the termination form to the same service center that received the original.

When You Don’t Need Form 56 at All

A surviving spouse filing a joint return for the year the other spouse died does not need to file Form 56 to sign that return, and does not need Form 1310 to claim any refund shown on it.⁷ The exception is narrow: it applies only to that joint return. If the estate itself later has income and needs to file Form 1041, someone still has to file Form 56 to act as fiduciary for the estate.

Form 56 is also not the same as Form 2848, the IRS power of attorney. A power of attorney authorizes representation on limited tax matters; a fiduciary through Form 56 stands in the taxpayer’s place across every period listed. Any power of attorney the decedent signed while alive stops being valid at death, which is why the new fiduciary filing is needed even if a Form 2848 was already on file.⁸

One Warning Worth Knowing Before You Sign

By signing Form 56 you accept the fiduciary role, and with it a real exposure. Under 31 U.S.C. § 3713, when an estate doesn’t have enough assets to pay everyone, federal tax claims take priority over most other debts. A fiduciary who pays other creditors or distributes to beneficiaries before settling the estate’s federal tax obligations can be held personally liable for the unpaid tax, up to the amount distributed.⁹ You don’t need actual knowledge that taxes are owed; a reasonable-person standard applies.

After you’ve filed all required returns for the decedent, you can request a formal discharge from personal liability by filing Form 5495. The IRS then has nine months to notify you of any additional income or gift tax owed; once you pay any amount it determines, or if the nine months pass with no response, you are discharged.¹⁰¹¹ If you file Form 5495, wait for that process to resolve before you file the Part II termination, so the IRS’s response reaches you at the fiduciary address it already has on file.

1
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 56, Notice Concerning Fiduciary Relationship
2
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 56 (Rev. December 2024)
3
Internal Revenue Service. File an Estate Tax Income Tax Return
4
Internal Revenue Service. Where to File – Forms Beginning With the Number 5
5
Internal Revenue Service. Modernized e-File (MeF) Forms
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 56 – Notice Concerning Fiduciary Relationship
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 1310 (Rev. December 2025)
8
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848 Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative – Purpose of Form
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 3713 – Priority of Government Claims
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 5495, Request for Discharge from Personal Liability Under I.R. Code Sec. 2204 or 6905
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eCFR. 26 CFR 301.6905-1 – Discharge of Executor From Personal Liability for Decedent’s Income and Gift Taxes