IRS Notice · CP90 · Final Notice of Intent to Levy · Decode

CP90: the same Final Notice, under a different code

A CP90 is the Final Notice of Intent to Levy — the same letter as an LT11 or a Letter 1058, with the same 30 days. Here is every code that carries this right, and which are which.

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If you have found conflicting advice because everything you read is about an LT11 and your letter says CP90, this page is the short answer: it is the same letter.

You have probably already searched the code and found pages about a different one. That is not a mistake in what you read. The IRS sends the Final Notice of Intent to Levy under a number of codes depending on which part of the IRS your file is sitting in, and your rights, your deadline and your form are the same under all of them. So the honest thing this page can do is tell you that in the first thirty seconds, and then answer the question you were going to ask next anyway. The one number to carry away: 30 days from the date printed on your notice to request a Collection Due Process hearing on Form 12153 — and when that date passes, the right is gone for good.

(800) 236-3741, or (502) 658-6328 locally — answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. After hours you reach our AI receptionist, not voicemail — it answers the common questions, takes your details, and books you the first available thirty minutes. During office hours you reach the office directly, in Georgetown.

The first call is free. Thirty minutes. No obligation, no conditions, no strings. Book a time →, or call the numbers above.

What a thirty-minute call actually settles: where your 30 days actually stands, what else is already running on the account — a filed lien, a levy in progress, an earlier notice that opened a window you did not know about — and whether an earlier hearing has already used this year's right.

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.

Key takeaways

•A CP90 is the Final Notice, Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing — the same instrument as an LT11, a Letter 1058, and, for a business, a CP297.
•You have 30 days from the date printed on the notice to request a Collection Due Process hearing, on Form 12153.
•The code tells you which part of the IRS issued it. It does not tell you anything about how serious your situation is.
•One code in this group is worth distinguishing: a Letter 1058 means a revenue officer is assigned to your case.
•The full explanation of the 30 days, what a hearing gets you and what it costs is on the LT11 page, and it applies to you unchanged.

What a CP90 is

A CP90 is the Final Notice of Intent to Levy. The IRS's own description: "We intend to levy certain assets for unpaid taxes and are informing you of your right to a Collection Due Process hearing."

It is the letter section 6330 of the tax code requires before the IRS may levy your wages, bank account or other property — written notice of your right to a hearing, at least 30 days beforehand.

Why the codes differ, and when it matters

The IRS issues this notice under several labels; these are the four you are most likely to be holding. The Taxpayer Advocate Service lists all of them among the notices that carry Collection Due Process rights, under near-identical titles.

Code	Issued by	Rights
CP90	The campus processing an individual account	30 days, Form 12153
LT11	The automated collection system	30 days, Form 12153
Letter 1058	A revenue officer assigned to your case	30 days, Form 12153
CP297	The campus processing a business account	30 days, Form 12153

Three of these four differences are administrative and change nothing you would do. The fourth does: a Letter 1058 means a person has your file, with discretion, deadlines of their own, and the ability to visit. That is a genuinely different next few weeks, and it has its own page.

Reference: every code that carries this right, and which are which

Skip this unless your letter carries a code that is not CP90 — the answer for CP90 is above.

If you only need one line of this: if your letter says the IRS intends to levy, nothing has been taken and your window is running. If it says levied or seizure, something has been taken and the window is still running. That is the whole distinction, and the tables below are for the reader who wants to see their exact code in it.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service lists fifteen notices and letters as carrying Collection Due Process rights, and they divide into those two groups.

Group one — the IRS intends to levy. The hearing comes first.

Code	The IRS's own title	Typically
LT11	Notice of Intent to Levy and Your Notice of a Right to a Hearing	Automated collection
Letter 1058	Final Notice, Reply Within 30 Days — Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing	A revenue officer
CP90	Final Notice, Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing	An individual account
CP297	Final Notice — Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing	A business account
CP177	Intent to Seize Your Assets and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing	—
CP77	Final Notice — Notice of Intent to Levy	Note: this title carries no hearing-rights half
Letter 4066	Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing	—

Group two — the IRS has already levied. The hearing comes after.

Code	The IRS's own title	What has happened
CP90C	Final Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Hearing	Assets levied; the specimen's printed heading reads "Notice of seizure and notice of your right to a hearing"
CP92	Notice of Levy on State Refund — Notice of Your Right to a Hearing	Your state tax refund taken
CP242	Notice of Levy on Your State Tax Refund — Notice of Your Right to a Hearing	The same
CP297A	Printed heading: Notice of seizure and notice of your right to a hearing	Business assets, after a disqualified employment tax levy
CP297C	The same	Business assets, after a federal contractor levy
LT75	Notice of Levy and your rights to a Hearing (Federal Contractor)	A federal contractor levy
Letter 2439	Notice of Jeopardy levy and Right of Appeal	A jeopardy levy

One code on the TAS list is neither, and it matters. A Letter 3174, "New Warning of Enforcement," is a re-warning rather than a fresh right. The regulation is explicit that only the first CDP notice for a tax and period entitles you to a hearing — 26 CFR 301.6330-1 — and the IRS sends a new warning when no collection action has followed within about six months. If you are holding one, the date that matters is the date of the Final Notice that came before it, and what is usually still open is an equivalent hearing. The same is true of anything that arrives after a Final Notice you have already had.

Why group two exists at all, because it looks like a mistake and it isn't. Section 6330 of the tax code says no levy may be made until the IRS has notified you in writing of your right to a hearing. Section 6330(f) then carves out four situations — a jeopardy finding, a levy on a state tax refund, a disqualified employment tax levy, and a federal contractor levy — where that requirement does not apply. In each of those the same subsection still entitles you to a hearing, within a reasonable period of time after the levy. The carve-out moves the hearing; it does not remove it. Group two is what that looks like in your mailbox.

So the useful question is not which code you have. It is which group. If it says intend, your window is running and nothing has been taken. If it says have levied or seizure, something has been taken and the window is still running — CP90C if it is assets, CP92 if it is your state refund.

And one caution about the whole table. Being on it means the code has at some point carried a hearing right. It does not mean your particular letter still does: the right attaches once per tax period, so a second notice for a year you have already had one on is a reminder rather than a new window.

Sources: Taxpayer Advocate Service, notices carrying Collection Due Process rights; IRS Notice CP90C and CP92 specimens; 26 U.S.C. §6330(a) and (f). Reviewed 5 September 2026.

If you would rather have the date confirmed from the account than counted off the envelope: (800) 236-3741, or Book thirty minutes →.

Your clock

30 days from the date printed on the notice to request a Collection Due Process hearing, on Form 12153.

Before you decide anything, pull the account transcript for the years on the notice — it is free, you can request it yourself, and it is the only place the other live dates are recorded. Reading it is the harder part. How to pull IRS transcripts without calling →

Counted from the date on the letter — not from the day it arrived. The regulation at 26 CFR 301.6330-1 is explicit that actual receipt is not a prerequisite: a notice sent to your last known address starts the clock whether or not it reaches you.

What the hearing gets you, and what it costs

A Collection Due Process hearing is not an appeal against the tax. It is a hearing about the collection of it, in front of the IRS Independent Office of Appeals, and what it practically does is put a stop between you and a levy while somebody neutral looks at whether the collection action is appropriate and whether a less intrusive alternative would work.

Publication 1660: "Unless one of the exceptions in section 6330(f) applies… levy action is not permitted for the subject tax and periods during the 30 days after the levy notice and during the timely requested CDP hearing process."

And the cost, which almost nobody mentions. The same publication: "If your request for a CDP hearing is timely, the 10-year period the IRS has to collect your taxes will be suspended until the date Appeals' determination becomes final or you withdraw your request for a hearing in writing." The IRS generally has ten years from assessment to collect; a timely request pauses that clock. For most people that is a good trade. If your balance is old, it is one to make deliberately.

If the 30 days has already gone

An equivalent hearing is available for one year from the date of the levy notice, on the same form. It is a lesser thing in three specific ways, and all three have to be said together:

	CDP hearing	Equivalent hearing
Levy action	Not permitted during the 30 days and the hearing, narrow exceptions aside	Not prohibited. Appeals may ask for a hold; nothing obliges it
Suspends the collection period	Yes	No
Can be taken to Tax Court	Yes	No

→ The longer version of all of this, written for the same letter — what to do in the 30 days, what happens if you do nothing, how a wage levy differs from a bank levy, and the situations that change the answer. Read the full LT11 page →

The 30-Day Levy Response Checklist

What to pull, what to confirm, and what has to happen before day 30 — in the order we do it here. It asks for a first name and an email address. These sheets carry dated figures, and the list is how a correction reaches you when one of them changes.

[ Download the checklist ]

If you want to know what else is already running on the account — a lien, a levy in progress, an earlier notice that opened a window: (800) 236-3741, or Book thirty minutes →. None of that is on your letter.

Katherine M. Johnson, CPA, CTRS

Katherine M. Johnson is a licensed CPA with over 30 years of experience and a Certified Tax Resolution Specialist (CTRS). She personally handles every case — representing individuals and businesses before the IRS and state revenue departments nationwide.

Read full bio

What to do in the next 30 days

The short version, and you can act on all of it today.

1. Count 30 days from the date on the letter. Not from the day it arrived. Write the date somewhere you will see it. If the two ever differ, counting from the letter is the earlier and safer of the two, and a person who follows it can never be late.

2. Decide about the hearing separately from deciding about the money. These are different questions and people conflate them. You can request the hearing without having worked out what you can pay.

3. If you want the hearing, file Form 12153 inside the 30 days — even if nothing else is resolved. The form preserves the right. The argument can develop afterwards. It goes to the address on your notice.

4. Know the price before you file it. A timely request suspends the ten-year collection period for the duration of the hearing and any appeal, with a minimum of 90 days after a determination. On an old balance that trade can go either way, and it belongs in the decision rather than being discovered later. Anyone who recommends a hearing without telling you this has described half of it.

5. Pull your account transcript. Free, and you can request it yourself. Whether you can dispute the underlying balance at the hearing turns on whether you had an earlier opportunity to dispute it — and that is answered on the transcript, not on the letter.

6. Ask for an installment agreement or an offer even if you expect it to take a while. Section 6331(k) bars levy while a request is pending, for 30 days after a rejection or termination, during an appeal filed in those 30 days, and while an agreement is in effect. "Pending" starts when the IRS accepts the submission for processing, not when you post it. The bar is on levy only — it does not stop a lien being filed, and it does not stop interest accruing.

7. If the 30 days has already gone, you still have the equivalent hearing — one year from the date of the notice. It gets you in front of Appeals. It does not prohibit levy while it runs, it does not suspend the collection period, and it carries no route to the Tax Court. A lesser remedy, and still a remedy.

A note on what this list does and does not settle. Filing the form is the easy half, and you should do it today whether or not you ever speak to us. What people lose on is the second half: Appeals asks what you are proposing, and a hearing goes better when you arrive with a collection alternative rather than an objection. That part is not a form.

What happens if you do nothing

The 30 days expires, and with it the strongest right you have in this whole process.

After that the IRS can levy — wages, bank accounts, receivables — without sending anything further. There is no additional warning letter after this one.

What you lose is not the ability to deal with the balance. It is the venue. Before the deadline you have a hearing in front of the Office of Appeals, with a route to the Tax Court behind it, and collection suspended while it runs. Afterwards you have an equivalent hearing that prohibits nothing and suspends nothing, and then the ordinary routes anyone has at any time.

Interest and penalties continue throughout, whatever you decide. That is not a reason to panic; it is a reason not to let the date pass by accident, which is how it usually goes.

The Kentucky note

If you have a Kentucky balance alongside the federal one, the thing to know is that the state has no equivalent of the letter you are holding.

Kentucky's collection statutes provide one review and it sits at the assessment stage: a 60-day protest under KRS 131.110, in writing, counted from the date of the notice. There is no state hearing right triggered by a levy or a lien filing the way section 6330 triggers one federally. Kentucky's protection sits earlier — and if a Kentucky balance is already being collected, that window has usually closed. How a Kentucky balance and an IRS balance interact →

Sources: KRS 131.110(1)(a); KRS 131.500(1)(a), Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Reviewed 27 August 2026.

What we see

People do arrive confused about which final notice they are holding, and the confusion is usually what prompts the call rather than the problem underneath it. What we do is the same in every one of these: find the date printed on the letter, then read the account to see what else is running behind it. The code almost never changes that — a Letter 1058 is the one that does, because it tells us there is a person to deal with rather than a system.

Katherine — you are welcome to replace this paragraph.

Does the code change the answer?

Mostly no, and it is worth being straight about how far that goes. The rights are identical, the deadline is identical, the form is identical. Everything that determines what you should do next is on your account and in your finances, not in the letter's code.

Where it does change the answer: a Letter 1058, because a person is assigned. And in the other direction, a code that says a levy has happened rather than that one is intended puts you past this stage entirely.

If someone tells you your specific code means something distinctive about your prospects, ask them which part of the tax code they are reading that from.

Where this sits in the sequence

Notice	What it is
CP504	Before this. Announces an intention to levy and can reach your state tax refund.
CP90▶ You are here	The Final Notice carrying your hearing right. 30 days from the date on the letter.
CP90C	If something has already been taken — the post-levy notice.
CP92	If the state refund has already gone.

The fuller version of this letter: LT11 — the Final Notice, in full → If a revenue officer sent yours: Letter 1058 → If something has already been taken: CP90C — the post-levy notice → If the state refund has already gone: CP92 → Before this: CP504 → All notices: The IRS notice index → What we do at this stage: IRS collection defense →

Frequently asked

Is a CP90 the same as an LT11?

Yes. Same instrument, same 30 days from the date on the notice, same Form 12153. The code reflects which part of the IRS issued it.

Everything I read is about an LT11. Does it apply to me?

Yes, on the law. Read it as though it said CP90 — the rights and the deadline are identical.

My letter says CP177 / LT75 / Letter 4066 — is that on this page?

Yes. The Taxpayer Advocate Service lists all of them among the notices carrying Collection Due Process rights, under near-identical titles, and the table above sets out which group each falls into. The rights and the form are the same; what differs is whether the levy has already happened.

Is a CP90 more serious than a CP504?

It is a later step. A CP504 announces an intention to levy and can reach your state tax refund; a CP90 is the notice the law requires before the IRS levies wages or a bank account, and it is the one carrying your hearing right.

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. Form 12153 you can file without us, and plenty of people do — and if all you needed was to know that your code is the same letter everyone else is writing about, you have it, and that was free. What you cannot do alone is see the rest of the account.

None of these is on your letter, and every one of them changes what the form is worth:

Whether an earlier notice already used this year's hearing right.
Whether a lien has been filed, or a levy is already in progress.
How much of the ten-year collection period is left on each year.
Whether the balance behind the notice is even right.

The first call is free. Thirty minutes. No obligation, no conditions, no strings. You will come away knowing where your 30 days actually stands, what else is already running on the account, and whether an earlier hearing has already used this year's right. You do not need paperwork organized; the notice and a rough sense of the years involved is enough.

(800) 236-3741, or (502) 658-6328 locally — or Book a time →. 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. After hours you reach our AI receptionist rather than voicemail — it answers the common questions, takes your details, and books you the first available thirty minutes. Katherine works the account herself.

Call (800) 236-3741 Book a time

This article 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