FIRE Account Owner Handoff Checklist

Ask the departing worker to identify the systems they use, organizations they represent, filing families they support, and evidence they maintain. Separate application administration from source preparation, transmission, status review, recipient work, and provider coordination.

List recurring and exceptional tasks. A worker may know the annual export routine but also be the only person who understands a prior-year correction or where a replacement result was saved. Capture those open cases before focusing on account settings.

Record the person's formal application role separately from their internal job title. “FIRE owner” is a useful company shorthand, but it does not define the permissions available to change the IRS application.

The current IRM distinguishes Responsible Officials, Authorized Delegates, and Contacts. In particular, an AD cannot add, edit, delete, or request changes to an RO. A Contact does not get application-management access from that role alone. IRM 3.42.9.7.

Confirm that the remaining authorized people can perform the needed handoff. If an RO is leaving, do not assume an operations manager with AD access can replace that person. Identify the appropriate RO or official support route early.

Use the current FIRE application guidance to check whether the required change is still available and what deadline applies. Do not wait for an internal last-day checklist if the IRS maintenance cutoff occurs first.

Point to the approved credential manager or access process where relevant, but do not copy a person's password or PIN into the handoff document. The successor should use their own appropriate authorized access.

Include a list of outside dependencies: the software vendor, former transmitter, archive administrator, and the internal person who can approve source-data changes. For each, record a current contact route and the type of question they handle. This prevents the successor from depending on the departing employee's personal mailbox or informal relationships to resolve a filing problem.

Fictional example. A corporation's finance director is an RO and keeps the FIRE archive. An operations manager is an AD. The director plans to leave in October 2026, so the manager volunteers to complete the entire handoff.

The review separates the work. The manager can organize the archive and handle permitted maintenance, but RO changes must be routed to an appropriate RO. The company schedules that action before the departure and before the applicable IRS cutoff.

The director also identifies an unresolved historical status question and the source report needed to investigate it. The successor retrieves that case from the archive during a rehearsal. The company records that retrieval as completed, while keeping the unresolved IRS outcome open.

The handoff therefore proves a specific continuity task, not that the old filing issue was resolved or that all new-system access is ready.

After an authorized update, compare the saved application with the intended roster and organization details. Publication 5911 explains that some revisions require signatures again. Check for that follow-up before recording the application change as complete. Publication 5911, existing-application modifications.

Then verify operational continuity separately. Have the successor find a historical filing result, identify its submitted source, and explain the next action for an open case. Keep this a bounded review that does not transmit a test return into production.

If access is unavailable because of retirement or an unresolved authorization issue, record the limitation honestly. Preserve the record locations and contact chain, and route the unresolved access question to official support. Do not describe a document handoff as a successful login test.

Record the handoff date, responsibilities accepted, actual checks performed, and open actions. Keep the former worker's relevant filing records under organizational custody according to policy. Do not delete historical files merely because the person's employment ends.

Identify which legacy duties end with FIRE and which continue: historical questions, corrections, record retention, and recipient follow-up can outlast the transmission system. Link those continuing duties to the new filing operations plan.

A FIRE TCC is not converted into an IRIS TCC by this handoff. Maintain a distinct new-system access record, including the chosen portal, direct A2A, or provider arrangement. The successor should know both the historical context and who owns the next filing season's process.