The IRS letter in your hand: what each notice means and how long you have

Every IRS notice has a code in the top right or bottom right corner. It looks like CP14 or LT11. That code tells you precisely where you are in a process that is more predictable than it feels, and whether you have months or days.

Find yours below.

CP14 — “You owe money”

The first bill. It is sent after the IRS assesses a balance, usually within weeks of a return being processed.

What it means: there is a balance, plus interest and probably a failure-to-pay penalty.

Deadline: 21 days to pay before more penalty and interest accrue.

What to do: check the arithmetic against your own return first — CP14s are sometimes generated by a processing error, a misapplied payment, or an estimated payment credited to the wrong year. If it is right and you cannot pay it, this is the easiest moment in the whole sequence to set up an installment agreement, and you can do it yourself online.

Panic level: low. This is a bill, not enforcement.

CP501, CP502, CP503 — “You still owe money”

Reminders, escalating in tone, usually about five weeks apart.

What it means: nothing new. The balance is unpaid and the file is progressing through automated collection.

Deadline: each gives around 21 days, but the real deadline is the one after these.

What to do: the same thing you should have done at CP14. Still straightforward.

Panic level: low, but the clock is now running toward something that matters.

CP504 — “Notice of intent to levy”

The tone changes here, and so should your response.

What it means: the IRS intends to levy. This notice specifically authorises seizing a state tax refund and warns that other property can follow. It is the last notice before the one that starts your appeal clock.

Deadline: 30 days.

What to do: act. Call the number on the notice, or get a professional to. An installment agreement or currently-not-collectible status at this stage generally stops the escalation. Ignoring a CP504 is how people end up with a levied bank account.

Panic level: high enough to move this week.

LT11 or Letter 1058 — “Final notice of intent to levy and notice of your right to a hearing”

The important one.

What it means: the IRS can now levy wages, bank accounts and other property after 30 days. It also gives you a right most people do not use: a Collection Due Process hearing.

Deadline: 30 days from the date on the letter. This deadline is the one that does not forgive.

What to do: file Form 12153 within 30 days to request a CDP hearing. Doing so generally suspends levy action while your case is considered, and gets you in front of the Office of Appeals — a different and more flexible part of the IRS than automated collection. You can raise an installment agreement, an offer in compromise, hardship status, or innocent spouse relief there.

Miss the 30 days and you can still request an “equivalent hearing”, but you lose the automatic hold on levies and the right to take the outcome to Tax Court. That is a genuinely costly thing to lose.

Panic level: highest. Diarise the 30-day date the day it arrives.

CP90 / CP297 — Final notice for individuals and businesses

Functionally the same as LT11, sent by a different unit. Same 30-day clock, same right to a hearing, same Form 12153.

CP91 / CP298 — Levy on Social Security benefits

Warns that up to 15% of Social Security benefits can be taken. Same 30-day window, same response.

Letter 3172 — Notice of federal tax lien filing

What it means: a lien has been filed. A lien is not a levy: nothing has been taken. But it is a public record attaching to your property, and it affects your ability to sell or refinance.

Deadline: 30 days to request a CDP hearing on the lien.

What to do: a lien can sometimes be withdrawn — for example, after entering a direct debit installment agreement for a qualifying balance. Worth asking about specifically.

CP2000 — “Our records do not match yours”

What it means: third-party data (a W-2, a 1099, brokerage reporting) does not match your return. This is not a bill and it is not an audit; it is a proposed change.

Deadline: 30 days to respond.

What to do: read the proposal against your own records. CP2000s are frequently wrong — a common cause is a broker reporting gross proceeds with no cost basis, so a $40,000 stock sale looks like $40,000 of income. If you disagree, say so in writing with documentation. Do not just pay it.

What all of them have in common

They arrive by post. The IRS does not initiate contact by phone, text, email or social media. A call demanding immediate payment, a gift card, a wire transfer or a cryptocurrency payment is a scam every single time — the IRS does not take any of those.

They have an appeal route. Almost every notice has a path to dispute it, and the deadlines are printed on the notice itself.

They get worse if ignored, and only if ignored. Nearly every escalation in this sequence is triggered by silence. A partial payment, a phone call, or a filed form stops the machinery moving.

If you cannot pay

Three routes exist, in rough order of how common they are.

• An installment agreement — pay it over time. Most people qualify and can set it up themselves online.
• Currently not collectible — if paying anything would leave you unable to cover basic living expenses, collection can be paused. Interest still accrues.
• An offer in compromise — settle for less than the full amount. Far rarer than the advertising suggests.

If you have unfiled returns, deal with those first. The IRS will not agree to most arrangements while returns are missing, and a substitute return filed on your behalf will not include deductions you were entitled to.

And if the normal channels have stalled, the Taxpayer Advocate Service is an independent office inside the IRS that exists for exactly that. It is free.