The AI vendor consent, with the language.
Rev. Proc. 2013-14 prescribes the exact wording. Most forms circulating do not contain it, which makes them invalid.
A clause in your engagement letter is not a section 7216 consent. Rev. Proc. 2013-14 section 5.01 requires consent to each separate disclosure or use to be on a separate written document — it may be an attachment to the engagement letter, which is where firms get confused, but it cannot be a paragraph inside it. Section 5.04(1) then prescribes mandatory statements that must appear in a given sequence, and there are three different versions depending on what you are asking for.
Which of the three do you need?
This is the question that comes before the wording, and it is the one almost nothing published addresses. The answer turns on whether the recipient is another tax return preparer performing services that assist in preparing the return, or providing auxiliary services as defined in Treas. Reg. section 301.7216-1(b)(2)(iii).
It matters for a reason that is entirely practical rather than academic. If the disclosure sits outside that context, section 5.04(1)(a) applies and conditioning your services on the client's consent invalidates the consent. If it sits inside it, section 5.04(1)(b) applies and you may decline the engagement or change its terms. Same statute, opposite answers on whether you can insist.
Whether a given AI vendor falls inside that definition is a real question with a real analysis behind it, and it is not one this page is going to pretend to settle for your facts. Take it to counsel with the vendor's contract in hand. What this page can do is make sure you know the question exists and that the wording differs, because a firm that never noticed has a filing cabinet of invalid forms.
The mandatory statements, verbatim.
Quoted from Rev. Proc. 2013-14 section 5.04(1). The revenue procedure requires these statements in the sequence shown, so the order is part of the requirement. The only substitution it permits is your firm's name in place of “we” or “our”.
Consent to DISCLOSE, outside the return preparation or auxiliary services context.
Conditioning your tax return preparation services on this consent makes the consent invalid. The form has to say so, and it does.
Federal law requires this consent form be provided to you. Unless authorized by law, we cannot disclose your tax return information to third parties for purposes other than the preparation and filing of your tax return without your consent. If you consent to the disclosure of your tax return information, Federal law may not protect your tax return information from further use or distribution.
You are not required to complete this form to engage our tax return preparation services. If we obtain your signature on this form by conditioning our tax return preparation services on your consent, your consent will not be valid. If you agree to the disclosure of your tax return information, your consent is valid for the amount of time that you specify. If you do not specify the duration of your consent, your consent is valid for one year from the date of signature.
Consent to DISCLOSE to another tax return preparer assisting with the return, or providing auxiliary services.
Here you may decline the engagement or change its terms if the client will not sign. That is the opposite of the rule above, and it is why identifying which path applies comes first.
Federal law requires this consent form be provided to you. Unless authorized by law, we cannot disclose your tax return information to third parties for purposes other than those related to the preparation and filing of your tax return without your consent. If you consent to the disclosure of your tax return information, Federal law may not protect your tax return information from further use or distribution.
You are not required to complete this form. Because our ability to disclose your tax return information to another tax return preparer affects the tax return preparation service(s) that we provide to you and its (their) cost, we may decline to provide you with tax return preparation services or change the terms (including the cost) of the tax return preparation services that we provide to you if you do not sign this form. If you agree to the disclosure of your tax return information, your consent is valid for the amount of time that you specify. If you do not specify the duration of your consent, your consent is valid for one year from the date of signature.
Consent to USE tax return information.
A use consent and a disclosure consent are different documents. Section 5.05 requires them to be provided separately, so one form cannot do both jobs.
Federal law requires this consent form be provided to you. Unless authorized by law, we cannot use your tax return information for purposes other than the preparation and filing of your tax return without your consent.
You are not required to complete this form to engage our tax return preparation services. If we obtain your signature on this form by conditioning our tax return preparation services on your consent, your consent will not be valid. Your consent is valid for the amount of time that you specify. If you do not specify the duration of your consent, your consent is valid for one year from the date of signature.
What else makes a form valid.
The mandatory statements are the part people miss. These are the parts people get wrong after copying the statements correctly.
A separate written document
Consent to each separate disclosure or use must be on its own written document. The revenue procedure explicitly allows it to be furnished as an attachment to an engagement letter — which is the source of the confusion. An attachment is a separate document. A clause in the letter is not.
Paper formatting
8.5 by 11 inch or larger, at least 12-point type, and all text on the sheet must pertain solely to the disclosure or use that consent authorizes.
Electronic formatting
Its own screen or screens. Text at least as large as the surrounding software's standard body text, sufficient contrast, signable, and formattable in a readable and printer-friendly way.
Affirmative consent only
Opt-out is prohibited outright. A form requiring the taxpayer to deselect what they do not want is not a valid consent. A pre-ticked portal checkbox fails here before anyone reads the wording.
Signature
Paper consents need the taxpayer's handwritten signature. Electronic consents must be signed by one of the methods prescribed in section 6 of the revenue procedure.
No later edits, no blanks
A preparer may not alter the form after signature, and may not present a form containing blank spaces intended to be completed afterwards.
Use and disclosure stay separate
Multiple disclosures may share one document and multiple uses may share one document, each with an affirmative selection per item. A disclosure consent and a use consent may not share a document.
Whole-return disclosures
If the consent authorizes disclosing a copy of the entire return, it must tell the taxpayer they can ask for a narrower disclosure instead.
Who this applies to.
Rev. Proc. 2013-14 applies to consents obtained with respect to taxpayers filing a return in the Form 1040 series. For clients outside that series you may use this language or a different format, provided the consent still meets Treas. Reg. section 301.7216-3 on its own terms.
The penalties behind all of it are why the formatting rules deserve the attention. Section 7216 is criminal: a misdemeanor carrying up to one year of imprisonment or a fine of up to $1,000, or both, together with the costs of prosecution. Section 6713 adds a civil penalty of $250 per disclosure or use, capped at $10,000 in a calendar year.
The pattern that works.
Engagement letter describes the engagement, and may mention that the firm uses software incorporating AI in delivering it. Separate attachment carries the consent, in the right version, with the mandatory statements in sequence, formatted to sections 5.02 or 5.03, signed affirmatively.
A new vendor is a new disclosure. That means a new consent rather than a reliance on last year's, which is the other quiet failure mode in firms that did this correctly once.
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Sources and standing.
The statements above are transcribed from Rev. Proc. 2013-14 section 5.04(1) as published by the IRS, and the requirements from sections 5.01 through 5.07 of the same document. Penalty figures are from sections 7216(a) and 6713(a) as recited in section 3 of the revenue procedure. Last reviewed at source: September 2026.
- IRS Rev. Proc. 2013-14, format and content of taxpayer consents under section 7216 (checked 2026-10-27)
- 26 CFR 301.7216-3, Disclosure or use permitted only with the taxpayer's consent (checked 2026-10-27)
- 26 U.S.C. 7216, Disclosure or use of information by preparers of returns (checked 2026-10-27)
This is not legal advice. Section 7216 carries criminal penalties, the consent requirements are exacting, and whether a particular vendor sits inside or outside the auxiliary services definition is a question for your counsel on your facts. Use this to know what to ask, not as a form to sign. If something here is wrong, tell me and it gets corrected.
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