How to Fill Out and Submit Form 231: General Power of Attorney

FS Form 231 is the Treasury’s general power of attorney that lets you authorize another person to endorse and collect certain checks drawn on the United States Treasury on your behalf. Download it from the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, fill in your name and your agent’s name, sign it in front of a notary, and give the acknowledged form to your agent. You do not file it with the Treasury.¹

What the Form Actually Authorizes

Despite the “general” label, Form 231 does one thing: it lets your attorney-in-fact endorse and collect Treasury checks issued for principal or interest on public debt obligations (including savings bonds and marketable securities), tax refunds, and payments for goods and services sold to the government.²

It does not give your agent access to your TreasuryDirect account, authority to transfer bond ownership, change beneficiaries, or redeem securities online. It is a check-collection instrument, nothing more. It is also not durable: the authority ends automatically if you die or become legally incompetent.¹

Who Can Sign It

Form 231 works for an individual, an unincorporated partnership, or a sole proprietor. Corporations use FS Form 234 along with a corporate resolution on FS Form 235.²

You can name anyone as your attorney-in-fact. There is no relationship requirement. Choose carefully: the Treasury will pay checks endorsed under this power without demanding proof of authority at the moment of deposit.³

Where to Get the Form

The form lives on the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s forms page at fiscal.treasury.gov under Payment Integrity and Resolution Services.⁴ It is a fillable PDF. Type your entries, then print — you need a physical copy for the notary.

Filling Out the Form

The form is a single page with a pre-printed power of attorney statement and four blanks to complete:

Your full legal name as it appears on the Treasury checks you receive. Partnerships and sole proprietors use the entity name.
The full legal name of the person you are authorizing.
Your attorney-in-fact’s current mailing address. This matters later if you decide to have checks redirected to them.
Your signature and the date. Sign in the notary’s presence.

You do not describe individual checks on Form 231. The form covers all future checks in the three eligible categories. Describing a specific check by serial number, symbol number, date, amount, and payee is what Form 232 is for.²

Notary Acknowledgment

The form’s instructions say it “should be acknowledged before a notary public or other officer authorized by law to administer oaths” where desirable or where state, local, or foreign law requires it.¹ Get the acknowledgment either way. The bank or credit union where your agent presents the form will expect to see one. A Medallion Signature Guarantee is not required.

The notary’s official seal or stamp must appear on the form. If the notary lacks an impression seal, include a certificate from the appropriate official confirming the notary was commissioned on the date of acknowledgment. The notary’s commission expiration date should appear on the document.¹

If You Are in the Military

Service members can have the form acknowledged before officers specially designated under military law rather than tracking down a civilian notary.¹

If You Are Overseas

Have the form acknowledged before a U.S. diplomatic or consular representative. If none is available, a local notary or oath-administering officer can perform the acknowledgment, but a U.S. diplomatic or consular officer then has to certify that person’s official character and jurisdiction under the office seal.¹

How Your Agent Uses It

You do not mail Form 231 to the Treasury. The instructions state that “powers of attorney need not be filed within the United States Treasury.”¹ Your attorney-in-fact keeps the acknowledged form and presents it to a bank or credit union when depositing or cashing a Treasury check for you.

The endorsement has to show the agent’s capacity. Standard format: “John Jones by Paul Smith, attorney-in-fact for John Jones.” The bank accepts the check and the Treasury honors it without requiring documentary proof of authority at the time of payment, though the Treasury can demand evidence of authority later if a dispute arises.³

Keep the original acknowledged form. Some banks will want to copy it for their records before accepting the endorsed check, and your agent may need to show it more than once.

Sending Checks Directly to Your Agent

By default, Treasury checks keep arriving at your address after you sign Form 231. To have them mailed to your attorney-in-fact instead, send a formal change-of-address notice to the administrative office that authorized the checks, identifying which checks are affected.¹ For bond interest, that means the Bureau of the Fiscal Service; for tax refunds, the IRS. The right contact point follows the issuing agency.

Revoking the Form

You can revoke Form 231 at any time by notifying “the parties concerned” — meaning your attorney-in-fact and any financial institutions that have been accepting checks under the power. Notifying the Treasury does not revoke anything, because the Treasury never had the form in the first place.¹

When a Different Form Is the Right One

The Treasury has three individual power of attorney forms. Picking the wrong one wastes time.

FS Form 231 (General) covers all future Treasury checks for public debt payments, tax refunds, and goods-and-services payments. Best when you expect multiple checks over time.
FS Form 232 (Specific) covers a single, already-issued check. It must be signed after the check is issued and must describe the check by serial number, symbol number, date, amount, and payee.
FS Form 233 (Special) covers recurring benefit payments such as Social Security or veterans’ benefits. Unlike Form 231, it can be made durable so it survives a determination of incompetence.

If you are planning for possible loss of mental capacity, Form 231 will not help; the authority ends the moment you are declared incompetent. Form 233 is the durable option. And if you want the IRS to mail a tax refund check to someone other than you as the taxpayer, Form 231 is not the mechanism — the form’s instructions point to 26 CFR 601.506(c) for that.¹

1
Bureau of the Fiscal Service. General Power of Attorney by Individual for the Collection of Certain Checks Drawn on the United States Treasury
2
Legal Information Institute. 31 CFR Appendix A to Part 240 – Optional Forms for Powers of Attorney and Their Application
3
eCFR. 31 CFR 240.17 – Powers of Attorney
4
Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Forms for Individuals and Corporations