Telling the IRS that somebody else is in charge now

Figures relate to tax year 2025-26 (UK) · 2025 (US)

Somebody has died, and you are the executor. You need to deal with their American tax affairs from a kitchen table in Britain.

The IRS does not know who you are. It has no record that anybody has taken over, and it will keep writing to the person who died.

Form 56 is how you tell them. It is short, it is free, and nothing else works until it is on file.

Key takeaways

• Form 56 notifies the IRS that a fiduciary is now acting.
• Executors, administrators, trustees and guardians all use it.
• It is not a power of attorney and does not replace one.
• Filing it redirects notices to you rather than the taxpayer.
• You file it when the relationship starts and again when it ends.
• It carries no fee and no approval process.
• Without it the IRS has no record that you exist.
• From abroad it is the first thing to send, not the last.

What is Form 56?

A notice telling the IRS that a fiduciary relationship exists. According to IRS guidance on the form, it informs them that you are now responsible for the tax affairs of another person or estate. You are not asking permission, you are stating a fact and asking them to deal with you from now on.

There is no fee, no approval step and no waiting for a decision.

The IRS simply updates its records and starts writing to you instead.

Who can file Form 56?

Anybody standing in the shoes of a taxpayer who cannot act for themselves. That covers an executor or administrator of an estate, a trustee of a trust, a guardian of a child or an incapable adult, and a receiver in an insolvency. The common thread is legal responsibility rather than mere helpfulness.

A relative helping out informally is not a fiduciary and cannot use this form.

The authority has to come from a court, a will, a trust deed or a statute.

How does Form 56 differ from a power of attorney?

A power of attorney appoints somebody to act for a taxpayer who is still able to act themselves. A fiduciary notice says the taxpayer can no longer act and somebody has stepped into their place. The first is a delegation, the second is a substitution.

Our guide to Form 2848 and IRS authority covers the other form.

An executor who files a power of attorney instead will find it rejected.

Can you need Form 56 and a power of attorney?

Often, and that surprises people. The fiduciary notice makes you the responsible person, and then you may want an adviser to act for you in that capacity. So the executor files one and the accountant files the other on top of it.

Both take time to process, so send them together at the start.

The adviser's authority has to name you as fiduciary rather than the deceased.

A worked example

Take an illustrative example. An American living in Bristol dies, leaving a British executor and several years of unfiled American returns.

The executor writes to the IRS explaining the position and hears nothing for months.

Nobody can speak to her because there is no record that she has any standing at all.

Once the fiduciary notice is filed, the correspondence starts reaching her and an adviser can be appointed to deal with the back years.

Two forms, two jobs

When should you file Form 56?

As soon as the relationship begins, and certainly before you try to do anything else. Everything that follows depends on the IRS knowing who you are, so filing it late simply delays every other step. From abroad that delay compounds because of the post.

Send it the week the grant of probate arrives rather than months later.

Nothing else you send will be acted on until this is recorded.

What do you need to attach?

Evidence of your authority, which for an executor means the grant of probate or letters of administration. A trustee attaches the relevant part of the trust deed. Without that proof the notice is a bare assertion and the IRS will come back asking for it.

Our guide to applying for probate as an American executor covers the British grant.

A British grant is acceptable evidence, though it needs explaining in a covering letter.

Does a British grant work?

Yes, and this is a common worry. The IRS accepts foreign court documents establishing your authority, because the question is whether you have standing rather than which country granted it. A short covering note explaining what the document is saves a round of correspondence.

Send a certified copy rather than the original, which you will need elsewhere.

Originals sent abroad are very hard to recover.

What happens once it is filed?

The IRS updates its records and notices begin coming to you. That alone solves one of the hardest problems in an estate, which is finding out what is actually outstanding. Correspondence addressed to somebody who has died tends to go nowhere useful.

Our guide to the IRS online account from the UK covers checking records.

Expect several weeks before the redirection takes effect.

Does it let you get transcripts?

It establishes the standing you need to ask for them, which is usually the first substantive step. Transcripts show which returns were filed, what was assessed and what remains outstanding. For an estate with an uncertain history that picture is essential before anything else can be planned.

Our guide to requesting a tax transcript from abroad covers the process.

Guessing at the position wastes months in a cross-border estate.

What about the final return?

The executor files a final personal return for the year of death, covering income to the date of death. Income arising afterwards belongs to the estate and is reported separately. Those are two different filings even though they feel like one job.

Our guide to wills for Americans in the UK covers the estate planning behind it.

The split date is the date of death, not the end of the tax year.

Does a trustee need it too?

Where the trust has American filing obligations, yes. A trustee taking over an existing trust uses the same notice to tell the IRS who is now responsible. That matters most where a British trust has an American owner or beneficiary.

Our guide to Form 3520-A and foreign trusts covers the trust reporting.

A change of trustee is a change of fiduciary, so the notice is filed again.

What about a guardian?

A guardian or conservator appointed for a child or an incapable adult uses the same form. The evidence is the court order rather than a grant of probate. The position otherwise works identically, with notices redirected and the guardian able to act.

Our guide to a child born abroad covers children's tax status.

Parents of a minor do not normally need it for ordinary matters.

How do you end the relationship?

By filing the same form again, marked as a termination. Executors often forget this and remain on record as the responsible person years after the estate closed. That means continuing to receive correspondence about an estate that no longer exists.

File the termination the month the estate is distributed.

It takes ten minutes and prevents years of confusion.

Does it make you personally liable?

Filing the notice does not create liability, though the role itself carries responsibilities. A fiduciary who distributes an estate before settling known tax debts can become personally liable for them. That risk comes from the law rather than from the form.

Our guide to UK inheritance tax meeting the US system covers the estate charges.

Take advice before distributing anything where American tax may be outstanding.

What if there are several executors?

Each one who intends to act files their own notice. The IRS deals with whoever is on record, so an executor who never files is invisible to them. Where one person is handling the American side, it is often simplest for that person alone to file.

Agree between yourselves who will deal with the IRS before anybody files.

Two executors giving different instructions creates obvious difficulties.

Does it help with a refund?

It establishes who may claim, though a refund due to somebody who has died usually needs an additional form as well. The fiduciary notice gets you recognised and the refund claim does the rest. Both are straightforward once the standing is established.

Our guide to amending a US return covers claims generally.

Refund cheques payable to a deceased person are difficult to bank.

What if the deceased never filed?

That is common with Americans who lived abroad for decades. The executor has to establish what is outstanding and decide how far back to go, which usually means using one of the catch-up procedures. The estate cannot be closed cleanly with that question unresolved.

Our guide to the streamlined route back covers the catch-up.

In our practice this is the single commonest problem in an expat estate.

Does HMRC need anything similar?

Britain handles it through the probate process rather than a separate notice. Producing the grant is generally enough to establish your authority with HMRC. So this particular piece of paperwork is an American requirement with no British equivalent.

Our guide to registering for Self Assessment covers the British return.

Executors frequently assume the grant covers both countries, and it does not.

What records should you keep?

A copy of the filed notice, proof of posting, the authority document and any confirmation received. Those four prove you were entitled to act, which matters if anybody questions a decision years later. Estate records need keeping long after distribution.

Keep them with the estate file rather than your own papers.

Queries about an estate can arrive many years afterwards.

Is there a deadline for Form 56?

No fixed statutory date, which misleads people into leaving it. The practical deadline is the moment you need the IRS to deal with you, and that moment usually arrives earlier than expected. Filing the notice in the first fortnight of an estate is the sensible habit.

Executors who wait until a problem appears then lose weeks to the post.

The form takes minutes, so there is no good reason to delay it.

What penalties sit behind Form 56 work?

None for the notice itself, because it carries no deadline and no fee. The penalties sit on the returns behind it. For 2025 the failure to file charge still runs at 5% of the unpaid tax each month, capped at 25%, so an estate with old returns outstanding builds up cost quickly.

So the urgency comes from the filings rather than from the notice.

Filing early simply lets you start fixing them sooner.

Can one Form 56 cover several tax years?

Yes, and that saves a good deal of paperwork. You identify the years and the types of return the notice covers, so a single filing can carry an estate across several open years at once. Executors dealing with a long gap in returns generally need exactly that.

Be specific rather than vague, because a blank entry invites a query.

List every year you expect to touch, including ones you may not need.

What if nothing happens after you file Form 56?

Give it six to eight weeks, then follow up. Processing from abroad takes longer, and a notice can sit in a queue without anybody rejecting it. If correspondence still goes to the deceased after two months, send a copy of the notice again with your proof of posting.

Keep that proof, because resending without it starts the argument from nothing.

Telephoning from Britain rarely helps, since the queue is the same either way.

Does Form 56 help with state taxes?

Not directly, because it speaks only to the IRS. Many states want their own notification, and a few want a copy of the probate grant as well. Where the deceased kept a connection to a particular state, check that state's own rules rather than assuming the federal notice covers everything.

California and New York in particular pursue estates with any lingering link.

A short letter to the state revenue department usually settles the position.

Who signs the Form 56?

The fiduciary signs, personally, and nobody can sign for them. An adviser cannot sign on an executor's behalf, because the whole point of the notice is that this named person has accepted the role. A scanned signature posted from Britain is perfectly acceptable.

Sign in ink and keep a copy of what you sent.

Co-executors each sign their own, rather than sharing one form.

How to file Form 56 from abroad

1. Confirm you are a fiduciary rather than somebody simply helping.
2. Obtain the grant, court order or trust deed proving your authority.
3. Complete Form 56 identifying yourself and the taxpayer.
4. Attach certified evidence of your authority, not the original.
5. Add a short covering note explaining a foreign court document.
6. Post it with proof, allowing for international mail.
7. File a power of attorney separately if an adviser will act.
8. File a termination notice once the estate or trust closes.

Mistakes and penalties we see with Form 56

The first is writing letters to the IRS for months without filing it, and wondering why nothing happens.

The second is filing a power of attorney instead, which does not work for somebody who has died.

The third is sending an original grant of probate abroad and then needing it in Britain.

The fourth is never filing the termination, so correspondence continues for years after the estate closed.

How US UK Tax Accountants helps

We file the notice first, because nothing else in a cross-border estate can move until the IRS knows who is acting and starts writing to the right address.

Then we pull the transcripts and work out what is actually outstanding. Our trusts and estates service covers the rest.

If you are an executor facing American tax affairs, get in touch before writing to anybody.

Last reviewed 26 October 2026. This article is general information and not personal tax advice, and estate procedures vary with the facts.