IRS Notice Lookup · 54 Notices Explained

Find your IRS notice. Find out how much time you actually have.

Q: Which IRS notices actually have a deadline?

The ones marked time-sensitive. The largest group is the Final Notice family — LT11, Letter 1058, CP90, CP297, CP92 and CP90C — carrying 30 days to request a Collection Due Process hearing, running from the date on the notice rather than the day it arrived. A Notice of Deficiency (CP3219A, CP3219N, Letter 531) carries 90 days to petition the Tax Court — 150 if it is addressed outside the United States — and the IRS states plainly that it cannot be extended.

The code in the corner of your letter is not random. It tells you exactly where you are in a sequence the IRS runs the same way every time — and, more usefully, how much room you have left.

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The ten-second version. Your code is in the top-right corner of the first page. It starts with CP or LT, or reads Letter followed by a number. Find it in the table below and you will know two things: whether anything on your letter expires, and what happens next if you do nothing.

Most people who land on this page believe they are at the end of the process. Almost nobody is. There are usually two or three letters still to come, and the options are widest right now.

First, how much time you actually have

Three levels. We apply them the same way on every page, and most of these letters are not emergencies.

🔴 Time-sensitive

A right expires if you do nothing. There is a date on the letter, and passing it costs you something you cannot get back — a hearing, an appeal, a court petition, sometimes a refund.

🟠 Act soon

Nothing expires yet. Your options narrow and the next letter is worse than this one.

⚪ Informational

It reports something that already happened. There is no window to miss.

There is no fourth level, and nothing here is color-coded to frighten you. Twenty of these fifty-three letters carry a right that expires. Thirty-three do not — and saying so plainly is the only thing that makes the twenty mean anything. A scale where everything is urgent carries no information.

The 54 notices

Grouped by what the letter is actually about. Linked rows have a full guide behind them; we add one a week.

You owe a balance

Notice	What it means	Urgency	Who
CP14	Your first notice that a balance is due on a filed return	🟠	Individual
CP501	A reminder that the balance from your first notice is still unpaid	🟠	Individual
CP503	Second reminder; the IRS may now file a tax lien	🟠	Individual
CP71	Annual reminder that an old balance is still on your account	⚪	Individual
CP71C	Annual reminder, with the passport and lien warnings	🟠	Individual
CP60	The IRS removed a payment applied in error, so you now owe	🟠	Individual
CP22A	The IRS changed your return and you now owe	🟠	Individual
CP161	Your business has an unpaid balance on a filed return	🟠	Business
CP215	A civil penalty has been charged to your business	🟠	Business
CP220	The IRS adjusted your business account — you may owe, be owed, or neither	⚪	Business

The IRS intends to take something

This is the group where rights genuinely expire. Every row marked 🔴 here carries a 30-day window to request a Collection Due Process hearing, running from the date on the notice, not the date you received it. It does not reopen.

Notice	What it means	Urgency	Who
CP504	Formal notice of intent to levy; your state refund is at risk	🟠	Individual
CP504B	The business version of the intent-to-levy notice	🟠	Business
LT11	Final Notice before levy, and your right to a hearing	🔴	Both
Letter 1058	The same Final Notice, hand-delivered by a revenue officer	🔴	Both
CP90	Final Notice of intent to levy, with hearing rights	🔴	Individual
CP297	Final Notice of intent to levy against a business account	🔴	Business
CP91	The IRS intends to take up to 15% of your Social Security	🔴	Individual
CP92	The IRS levied your state refund; a hearing right opens now	🔴	Individual
CP90C	The IRS has already levied, and your hearing right is live	🔴	Both
LT16	The IRS wants payment, missing returns, or both, before enforcement	🟠	Both

Liens, levies and your passport

Notice	What it means	Urgency	Who
Letter 3172	A federal tax lien was filed, and you can request a hearing	🔴	Both
Publication 1450	How to get a federal tax lien released once it's paid	⚪	Both
Form 668-W	Your employer has been told to send part of your pay to the IRS	🔴	Individual
Form 668-A	Your bank has been told to hold and send your funds to the IRS	🔴	Both
CP508C	Your tax debt was certified to the State Department; passport at risk	🔴	Individual
CP508R	The passport bar is lifted; you still have to apply	⚪	Individual

Payroll tax, and when it becomes personal

Notice	What it means	Urgency	Who
Letter 1153	The IRS proposes to assess unpaid payroll tax against you personally	🔴	Both
Form 4180	The IRS interview form used to decide if you are personally liable	🟠	Both
Letter 725-B	A revenue officer scheduled a meeting — office, your business, or phone	🟠	Both
Letter 903	A warning that unpaid payroll taxes could lead to a court injunction	🟠	Business
CP162	A penalty for not filing your business return electronically as required	🟠	Business
CP136	Your payroll deposit schedule is changing for next year	⚪	Business
CP207	Your Form 941 Schedule B is missing or incorrect; send a corrected one	🟠	Business
CP259	The IRS has no record of a business return it expected	🟠	Business

A return is missing

Notice	What it means	Urgency	Who
CP59	The IRS has no record of a personal return it expected from you	🟠	Individual
CP515	A reminder that a past-due return is still outstanding — often sent after an earlier notice came back undelivered	🟠	Individual
CP516	A second request for a return the IRS still hasn't received	🟠	Individual
CP518	Final reminder that the IRS still has no record that you filed	🟠	Individual
CP63	Your refund is held because you haven't filed and likely owe tax	🟠	Individual
CP88	Your refund is held pending a return the IRS is waiting for	🟠	Individual
CP080	Credit is sitting on your account with no return on file — and it expires	🔴	Individual
Letter 2566	The IRS calculated your unfiled year's tax from third-party income records	🟠	Individual
CP3219N	Notice of Deficiency after the IRS filed a return for you	🔴	Individual

The IRS is questioning your return

Notice	What it means	Urgency	Who
CP2501	Your return doesn't match third-party data; explain before tax is proposed	🟠	Individual
CP2000	Income reported to the IRS doesn't match your return. Not an audit	🟠	Individual
Letter 566	Your return has been selected for examination	🟠	Individual
Letter 525	Examination results, and your 30-day window to disagree	🔴	Both
Letter 692	The IRS revised its audit findings and wants your reply	🔴	Both
Letter 531	Notice of Deficiency following an examination	🔴	Both
CP3219A	Notice of Deficiency — the letter that starts your Tax Court window	🔴	Individual

Payment plans

Notice	What it means	Urgency	Who
CP521	Your monthly payment plan reminder — with a date you must meet	🟠	Individual
CP522	The IRS wants updated financials — by telephone — to keep your plan going	🔴	Individual
CP523	The IRS intends to end your payment plan and intends to levy. 30 days, and one appeal	🔴	Individual
CP166	A direct debit payment on your plan didn't go through	🟠	Business

No guide behind your row yet? We add one a week, and we already know what yours says. Call (800) 236-3741 and we will tell you what it means and whether anything on it is running — that part doesn't cost anything, and for a lot of these letters it is the entire answer.

Katherine M. Johnson, Certified Public Accountant & Certified Tax Resolution Specialist

CPACTRS

Reviewed by

Katherine M. Johnson

Certified Public Accountant & Certified Tax Resolution Specialist

Every case here is reviewed and worked by Katherine personally. Not a processing department, and not a case manager relaying messages from someone you never meet.

Read full bio (800) 236-3741

If your code isn't in the table

Three questions place almost any IRS letter. Does it say you owe money? Does it say a return is missing? Does it question something on a return you filed? Each one maps to a group above.

But before you conclude yours isn't here — check whether you are holding a twin.

The IRS runs most notices in matched pairs, one for individuals and one for businesses, under different numbers and with nearly identical wording. If your code isn't listed, its partner probably is, and it means the same thing:

If you have	Its twin is	Same notice, different
CP161	CP14	business / individual
CP259	CP59	business / individual
CP260	CP60	business / individual
CP518B	CP518	business / individual
CP162A	CP162	late filing / e-filing failure
Letter 2030	CP2000	business / individual
Letter 2531	CP2501	business / individual
CP210 or CP220	CP22A	business / individual
Letter 3219	Letter 531	mail audit / in-person audit — same statutory notice, same 90-day clock
CP207L	CP207	identical text
CP71D	CP71	near-identical

And one trap worth knowing about, because the numbers look like a pattern and aren't. CP601, CP603 and CP604 are the Spanish-language versions of CP501, CP503 and CP504 — not business variants. The whole 6xx series mirrors the 5xx series in Spanish. If you have a CP621, you have a CP521.

Still nothing? It may be a refund notice, an adjustment confirmation or a credit letter — which this library deliberately leaves out. The next section says why.

Where your letter sits in the sequence

IRS collection runs in a fixed order, and that is the most useful thing on this page. A balance notice. Reminders. A notice of intent to levy. Then the Final Notice — the only stage carrying a published deadline on a right you can lose. Then enforcement: a lien, a wage levy, a bank levy.

If you are in the first half, you have more room than the letter suggests — and the options available before the Final Notice are wider than the ones available after it. Payment plans, hardship status and offers are all easier to arrange from a position that isn't yet enforcement.

If you are at the Final Notice, the room is real but dated. Thirty days, from the date printed on the letter. It is the one point in the whole sequence where somebody at the IRS is required to hear you out before anything is taken.

If you would rather know where you actually are than guess: (800) 236-3741, or book thirty minutes. It is usually a short conversation, and it often ends with you having more time than you thought.

Download: The IRS Notice Timeline

One page, the whole sequence in order, so you can see what came before your letter and what comes next. It asks for a first name and an email address. The figures on it are dated, and the list is how a correction reaches you when one of them changes.

What this library covers, and what it doesn't

We cover the letters where what you do next changes the outcome — the IRS wants money, is missing a return, or is questioning one you filed.

We leave out refund notices, adjustment confirmations and credit-eligibility letters. They are worth reading and they rarely need anybody. We would rather send you to the IRS's own page for those than pad this one out.

The big libraries run to ninety-odd entries. We have 54 — and we are not going to pretend that is a shortcoming. Every row here was checked against an IRS source before it was published. When we did that, we found errors in more than half the rows we had inherited, including one notice classed as routine that actually carries the strongest right in the whole collection process. That is what the row count buys. Volume was never the differentiator.

What we see

The letter people bring in is almost never the only one they have. It is the one that finally got opened, and behind it there is usually a drawer, a glovebox or a kitchen drawer with four or five more in it — and the order they arrived in matters more than the one on top. So the first thing we do is not read the letter. It is pull the account transcript and lay the years out, because the notice tells you what the IRS sent and the transcript tells you what the IRS actually did. Most of the time the thing that changes the answer is on a year nobody was asking about.

Frequently asked

Q.Where is the notice number on an IRS letter?

Top-right corner of the first page. It usually begins CP or LT, or reads "Letter" followed by a number. Some documents here are forms rather than notices — a 668-W or 668-A is a levy served on your employer or bank, and the number is on the form itself.

Q.Which IRS notices actually have a deadline?

The ones marked 🔴. The largest group is the Final Notice family — LT11, Letter 1058, CP90, CP297, CP92 and CP90C — carrying 30 days to request a Collection Due Process hearing, running from the date on the notice rather than the day it arrived. A Notice of Deficiency (CP3219A, CP3219N, Letter 531) carries 90 days to petition the Tax Court — 150 if it is addressed outside the United States — and the IRS states plainly that it cannot be extended.

Q.Is an IRS notice the same as an audit?

Usually not. CP2000 is the one most often mistaken for one — it is an automated mismatch between what was reported about you and what your return said. The IRS's own page says it is not a bill or an audit.

Q.Does the IRS call, text or email about these?

These arrive by mail. The IRS does not open contact by email, text or social media about a balance, and a first contact demanding immediate payment by card, wire or gift card is not the IRS.

Q.How long does the IRS have to collect?

Generally ten years from assessment, and each tax year runs its own clock. Several things pause it — a pending offer, a timely hearing request, bankruptcy — so the date on your paperwork is not always the real one. It is on your account transcript, and on an old balance it is often the question that changes the answer entirely.

If you'd rather not work it out alone

We handle IRS collection matters for individuals and small businesses from our office in Georgetown, Kentucky. The most useful thing we do on a first call is usually the smallest one: tell you what your letter is, whether a clock is running, and whether you need anybody at all.

The first call is free. No obligation, no conditions, no strings. Thirty minutes. You will come away knowing what your notice means, whether a deadline is running and the date it closes, and where you sit in the sequence. You do not need your paperwork organized, and most people who call don't have it.

Call (800) 236-3741 Book a Consult

Call (800) 236-3741, or (502) 658-6328 locally. The line is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week — so if it is late and you have just opened the envelope, you can start tonight rather than waiting. After hours you reach our AI receptionist rather than voicemail. Katherine works the account herself, and you will not be handed to a case manager.

This page is general information, not tax advice for your situation. Every account is different, the options described here are not available to everyone, and no outcome is guaranteed.

Next Level Tax Resolution is a private CPA firm in Georgetown, Kentucky. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service, the Kentucky Department of Revenue, or any government agency.

The NLTR Office · Reviewed by Katherine M. Johnson, CPA, CTRS