We ask for the information on this form to carry out the Internal Revenue laws of the United States. Form 2848 is provided by the IRS for your convenience and its use is voluntary. If you choose to designate a representative to act on your behalf, under section 6109, you must disclose your SSN, ITIN, or EIN. The principal purpose of this disclosure is to secure proper identification of the taxpayer. We need this information to gain access to your tax information in our files and properly respond to any request. If you do not disclose this information, the IRS may suspend processing of the power of attorney and may not be able to honor your power of attorney until you provide the number.

We may disclose this information to Department of Justice for civil or criminal litigation. We may also disclose this information to other countries under a tax treaty, or to Federal and state agencies to enforce Federal nontax criminal laws and to combat terrorism. The authority to disclose information to combat terrorism expired on December 31, 2003. Legislation is pending that would reinstate this authority.

You are not required to provide the information requested on a form that is subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act unless the form displays a valid OMB control number. Books or records relating to a form or its instructions must be retained as long as their contents may become material in the administration of any Internal Revenue law.

The time needed to complete and file Form 2848 will vary depending on individual circumstances. The estimated average time is: Recordkeeping, 6 min.; Learning about the law or the form, 31 min.; Preparing the form, 26 min.; Copying and sending the form to the IRS, 34 min.

If you have comments concerning the accuracy of these time estimates or suggestions for making Form 2848 simpler, we would be happy to hear from you. You can write to the Tax Products Coordinating Committee, Western Area Distribution Center, Rancho Cordova, CA 95743-0001. Do not send Form 2848 to this address. Instead, see the Where To File Chart on page 1.