IRS Notice · CP90C · Post-Levy Hearing Right · Panic

CP90C: the levy already happened, and a right just opened

A CP90C means a levy has already been made — and it hands you a right the IRS did not have to give you first. Here is what that right is worth and how to use it.

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A CP90C reports a seizure that has already happened. It also carries a deadline, and the deadline is the part people miss because the letter reads like a receipt.

The heading on your letter says “Notice of seizure.” Past tense. That is why this letter gets read once and put down — there is nothing obviously to stop, and the tone is administrative rather than urgent.

Read the second half of the heading. It says “and notice of your right to a hearing.” The IRS is telling you two things in one sentence: what it did, and what you can still do about it. That second half has a clock on it: 30 days from the date printed on this notice to request the hearing on Form 12153. When that date passes, the right is gone for good.

And if this reached a bank account, check the date before you assume the money is gone. A bank holds levied funds for 21 days before sending them to the IRS. If the levy is recent, there may still be time for a release to reach the money — and that is a faster instrument than the hearing.

(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 thirty minutes gets you: whether what was taken is still recoverable, which of the four arguments you actually have, and what to say when you call to ask for a release.

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 CP90C reports a levy already made and informs you of your right to a Collection Due Process hearing.
•You have 30 days from the date printed on the notice to request it, on Form 12153. Your letter prints the resulting date on its face.
•The hearing came after the levy rather than before it because one of four narrow statutory exceptions applied. The exception delays the hearing; it does not remove it.
•A hearing is not the fastest instrument here. A levy release under section 6343 is faster — and on a bank levy still inside the 21-day hold, a release can reach the money before it moves. Money already sent to the IRS is a separate and harder request under section 6343(d).
•If it reached a bank account, the money has not necessarily gone. The bank holds levied funds for 21 days before sending them to the IRS. On a recent levy that is a real window, and it is the only clock on this page that can still save money rather than argue about it.
•Miss the 30 days and an equivalent hearing remains for a year — with no levy protection, no pause on the collection clock, and no route to court.

What a CP90C is

A CP90C is notice that the IRS has levied your assets, together with your right to a hearing about it. The IRS's own description: “We levied your assets for unpaid taxes and are informing you of your right to a Collection Due Process hearing.” The letter itself opens: “We have issued a notice of seizure (levy) to collect your unpaid federal taxes.”

The Taxpayer Advocate Service lists it under the title Final Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Hearing, among the notices carrying Collection Due Process rights. The printed heading on the letter is blunter: Notice of seizure and notice of your right to a hearing.

Both halves are the notice. The first is history. The second is live.

Why no warning came first

This is the part that feels wrong, and there is an actual answer rather than a shrug.

Section 6330(a) of the tax code says no levy may be made until the IRS has notified you in writing of your right to a hearing, at least 30 days beforehand. That rule is why the whole Final Notice family exists.

Section 6330(f) then lists four situations where it does not apply: where the IRS has found that collection of the tax is in jeopardy; where it has served a levy on a State to collect a federal liability from a state tax refund; where it has served a disqualified employment tax levy; and where it has served a federal contractor levy.

Exception	What it covers
6330(f)(1)	Jeopardy — the IRS has found that collection of the tax is in jeopardy.
6330(f)(2)	State tax refund levy — a levy on a State to collect a federal liability from a state tax refund.
6330(f)(3)	Disqualified employment tax levy — a specific, narrowly defined carve-out.
6330(f)(4)	Federal contractor levy — the exception the IRS publishes for a CP90C in plain English.

Your CP90C may say which one applied to you. The specimen the IRS publishes names the fourth in plain English: “Because you are a federal contractor, you were not given the right to a pre-levy hearing. However, you can appeal the seizure (levy) of your assets by requesting a Collection Due Process hearing (Internal Revenue Code Section 6330).”

That sentence is the whole architecture in two lines, and it is worth taking at face value. The same subsection that removed the warning requires that you “be given the opportunity for the hearing described in this section within a reasonable period of time after the levy.” The right was not taken away. It was moved to the other side of the levy — and this letter is the delivery of it.

Your letter may name which exception applied to you, and it is worth reading for it. The only reason the IRS publishes for a CP90C is the federal contractor one, quoted above. Within the automated federal payment levy program, the other exceptions carry their own codes — a CP297A after a disqualified employment tax levy, a CP92 or CP242 for a state tax refund, a Letter 2439 for a jeopardy levy — so a CP90C most often means the contractor limb.

If your letter names a reason that does not match your circumstances — if it says federal contractor and you are not one and never have been — that is a discrete, checkable fact about your account and it is worth raising. We are not going to tell you it outranks everything else here, because which argument is strongest depends on what was taken and when.

Sources: IRS, “Understanding your CP90C notice” and Notice CP90C; Taxpayer Advocate Service; 26 U.S.C. §6330(a) and (f). Reviewed 5 September 2026.

Your clock

You have 30 days from the date printed on the notice, and you request the hearing on Form 12153.

The regulation says so for this letter in the same breath as it says so for the pre-levy ones: “A taxpayer is entitled to one CDP hearing with respect to the unpaid tax and tax periods covered by the pre-levy or post-levy CDP Notice provided to the taxpayer. The taxpayer must request the CDP hearing within the 30-day period commencing on the day after the date of the CDP Notice.” The specimen prints the resulting date on the letter — a notice dated 23 January carries a deadline of 22 February.

Counted from the date on the letter, not from the day it reached you. The same regulation states that actual receipt is not a prerequisite: a notice properly sent to your last known address starts the clock.

One phrase is easy to misread in your own favor. Section 6330(f) says the hearing must be offered “within a reasonable period of time after the levy.” That is the IRS's deadline to offer you the hearing. It is not your deadline to ask for one. Yours is the 30 days above, and it is printed on your letter.

The faster question: can the levy be released

A hearing is a process. A release is a request, and on a levy that has already taken money it is usually the more urgent of the two. They are not alternatives — make both.

Section 6343 requires the IRS to release a levy where any of these is true:

Ground	In the IRS's own words
The balance is paid	"You paid the amount you owe"
The collection period had already run	"The period for collection ended prior to the levy being issued"
Release helps you pay	"Releasing the levy will help you pay your taxes"
An installment agreement	"You enter into an Installment Agreement and the terms of the agreement don't allow for the levy to continue"
Economic hardship	"The levy creates an economic hardship, meaning the IRS has determined the levy prevents you from meeting basic, reasonable living expenses"
The property is worth more than the debt	"The value of the property is more than the amount owed and releasing the levy will not hinder our ability to collect the amount owed"

On hardship the IRS draws a distinction in two consecutive sentences, and the difference between them is the difference between a right and a request: “If the levy on your wages is creating an immediate economic hardship, the levy must be released. If the levy on your bank account or other account is creating an immediate economic hardship, the levy may be released.”

Must, and may. A wage levy causing genuine hardship has to go. A bank levy causing the same hardship is a decision someone makes.

There is also a narrower remedy for money already gone. Section 6343(d) allows property that has been levied to be returned where the levy was premature or did not follow the IRS's own administrative procedures, where an installment agreement exists, where return would facilitate collection, or where the National Taxpayer Advocate determines it. That is a later and harder request than a release, and the two should not be described as the same thing.

And the IRS's own caveat, which belongs here rather than in small print: “The release of a levy does not mean you don't have to pay the balance due. You must still make arrangements with the IRS to resolve your tax debt or a levy may be reissued.”

The 30-Day Levy Response Checklist

What to pull, what to confirm, and the order to do it in when a levy has already landed. 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.

If the money is still inside the 21 days, that is the call to make today. (800) 236-3741, or Book thirty minutes →. We can tell you which of the four arguments you have before you spend a day on the wrong one.

What to do in the next 30 days

Find the date on the notice and work to it.

Everything else is easier once the hearing question is settled.

Establish what was actually taken, and from where.

A bank levy and a wage levy behave differently and have different remedies. If it reached a bank account, the bank holds the funds for 21 days before sending them to the IRS — which means on a recent levy there may still be a window in which a release reaches the money before it moves.

Make the hardship case in writing if it is true, and make it now.

The IRS says what it will want: "the IRS will usually need you to provide financial information so be prepared to provide it when you call." Vague hardship goes nowhere; documented hardship is one of six grounds on which section 6343 requires a release, and the IRS's own guidance treats a wage levy causing immediate hardship as one that must be released.

Ask for a payment plan or an offer, because the request itself is protective.

Section 6331(k) bars further levy while a request for an installment agreement or an offer in compromise is pending, for 30 days after a rejection, during an appeal of that rejection, and while an agreement is in effect. It does not undo the levy you already have — that is step 3 — but it stops the next one. The protection begins, for an offer, on the date the IRS accepts it for processing rather than the day you send it. Two limits: section 6331(k)(3) borrows the exceptions in 6331(i)(3), so the bar gives way to a jeopardy finding and does not stop a federal refund being taken as an offset; and a pending request suspends the ten-year collection period.

Pull the transcripts.

Free, and you can request them yourself. What you want is what else is live on the account, how old each year's assessment is, and whether a notice of deficiency was ever issued for the year in question. Reading them is the harder part, and here it tells you what was taken, when, and under which authority — which decides whether your argument is hardship, an expired collection period, or a levy that should not have issued.

File Form 12153 inside the 30 days if you want the hearing.

A timely request suspends further levy action and the ten-year collection period until Appeals' determination becomes final "or you withdraw your request for a hearing in writing." On an old balance that pause is a real cost, so make it a decision rather than a reflex.

The situations that change this answer

You may be able to argue the balance itself. Section 6330(c)(2)(B) allows the underlying liability to be raised at the hearing where you “did not receive any statutory notice of deficiency for such tax liability or did not otherwise have an opportunity to dispute it.” If the year behind this levy is one the IRS assessed without you, that changes what the hearing is for.

You may have used your hearing already. Section 6330(b)(2) allows only one CDP hearing per taxable period.

If the balance is old, that is the first question. Section 6343 requires release where the liability “becomes unenforceable by reason of lapse of time.” A levy issued after the ten-year collection period expired is one the IRS is required to release.

Some property could not have been levied at all. Section 6334 exempts unemployment benefits, workers' compensation, certain service-connected disability payments, certain public assistance, judgments for the support of minor children, tools of a trade and a minimum amount of wages. A principal residence is exempt unless a judge or magistrate of a United States district court approved the levy in writing, and property used in the trade or business of an individual taxpayer requires a determination that other assets were insufficient. If what was taken falls into one of those categories, the argument is not hardship — it is that the levy should not have issued.

One qualification, because it bites on exactly this notice. Where the levy is a continuing levy on federal payments under section 6331(h), section 6334(f) removes the exemption from unemployment benefits, workers' compensation, the minimum wage exemption and certain public assistance. Service-connected disability payments and child-support judgments stay exempt either way. Which kind of levy was used is on the paperwork.

After the hearing there is a second deadline. If Appeals decides against you, section 6330(d)(1) gives 30 days from the determination to petition the United States Tax Court.

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. Levy action is not prohibited during it, the collection period is not suspended, and Publication 1660 is explicit: “You cannot go to court if you disagree with Appeals' decision.” Treat it as a conversation without protection.

How to ask for a release — today

This page has told you a release is usually the more urgent of the two routes. Here is how you actually ask for one, because the request is not a form and nobody publishes the mechanics.

Call the number on the levy. The IRS's own instruction: “Contact the IRS at the telephone number on the levy or correspondence immediately and explain your financial situation.” It is the number on your paperwork, not the general helpline — the levy is account-specific and so is the routing.
Have the bank's or employer's fax number in front of you when you call. This is the most useful and least published part of the whole process. The IRS asks for the fax number of the institution processing the levy, because that is how a release physically reaches them in time. A caller with that number in hand is materially faster than one without it, and on a 21-day clock that difference is the money.
Say what the levy stops you paying, in figures. The standard is whether the levy prevents you from meeting basic, reasonable living expenses — a comparison, so bring both sides. Rent, utilities, food, transport, medication, against what is left.
Know which lever you are pulling. On wages, a levy causing immediate economic hardship must be released. On a bank account, it may be. Same hardship, different verb, and it is worth knowing which side of it you are on before you call.
Ask for an installment agreement or an offer in the same call if you cannot clear the balance. An agreement in effect covering the liability is itself one of the release grounds, and a pending request bars further levies under section 6331(k).

And the sentence the IRS attaches to all of it, which we are not going to leave off: “A levy release does not mean you are exempt from paying the balance.” Getting this money back and settling the account behind it are two separate pieces of work. Only the first one has 21 days on it.

Sources: IRS, “What if a levy is causing a hardship”; IRS, “How do I get a levy released”. Reviewed 5 September 2026.

What happens if you do nothing

Two clocks, and only one of them is still running in your favor.

The money already taken: if it reached a bank account, the 21 days is the window in which it is still recoverable without a refund claim. After that it goes to the IRS, and getting it back becomes a slower, narrower argument about a return rather than a request to stop a transfer.

The hearing right: 30 days from the date on the notice. Let it lapse and what remains is the equivalent hearing — no bar on levy, no suspension of the collection period, no route to the Tax Court.

And the levy that already happened does not prevent the next one. This notice reports one act. The account behind it is still open, and on an unresolved balance a further levy is not unusual. That is the real argument for acting inside these two windows rather than after them.

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

The Kentucky note

If a Kentucky balance sits behind or alongside the federal one, the state process has already been running on different rules.

Kentucky's Department of Revenue can levy administratively, without a court judgment, once an assessment is final and the tax has been unpaid for 30 days after demand. Its statutory floor before levying is a written notice of intention, given in person or by certified mail to the last known address, no less than ten days before the levy date under KRS 131.510(1).

And there is no state analogue to the letter you are holding. Kentucky's collection statutes provide no hearing right, no appeal right and no suspension of collection triggered by a lien filing or a levy. The state's review sits earlier — a 60-day protest at the assessment stage under KRS 131.110, in writing, from the date of the notice — and once it closes there is no second door. On a bank account reached through the state's financial institution data match system, KRS 131.672(3) provides that the levy arises when the financial institution receives notice, and that notice goes to the taxpayer within two business days of the date it is sent to the institution. That is a notice sequence, not a holding period; it is not the state equivalent of the federal 21 days and should not be read as one. It also governs that specific matching system rather than every state bank levy.

How a Kentucky balance and an IRS balance interact → · Kentucky tax liens and levies →

Sources: KRS 131.500(1); KRS 131.510(1); KRS 131.110(1)(a); KRS 131.672(3). Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Reviewed 5 September 2026.

What we see

When a levy has already taken money, the first thing we check is not the argument — it is the calendar and the paperwork: what was taken, from where, on what date, and under which authority. On a bank levy that one check decides whether the next call is a release request that can still reach the money or a slower argument about getting it returned, and those are different pieces of work with different urgency. The second check is the account itself, because a levy issued on a year whose collection period had already run, or on a balance built from a return nobody filed, is a very different conversation from a hardship case. People arrive assuming the hearing is the instrument; more often the useful one is the release, and sorting out which is which is where the first half hour goes.

Katherine — You're welcome to modify the above paragraph with what you actually check when a CP90C lands.

Katherine is a CPA, which places her in the category of representative the IRS recognizes as having unlimited rights to act for a taxpayer before it — including filing a Power of Attorney and reading the account directly. On a levy that has already been served, the practical value is narrow and immediate: knowing what was taken, when, and under which authority decides whether the next call is about hardship, about the collection period, or about a levy that should never have issued.

What we cannot promise you about getting it back

We are not going to tell you the odds, because we do not know them and neither does anyone quoting you a number. Whether money comes back depends on things nobody can see from a letter, and a firm that gives you a probability before reading the account is guessing. If it turns out there is no argument worth pursuing, you will hear that too.

What the first call can settle is which of these you actually have:

The levy is inside the 21-day bank hold, so a release can still reach the money before it moves.
Hardship you can document in figures — and on wages, a levy causing immediate hardship must be released.
An expired collection period, which requires release of the levy outright.
Property that could not have been levied at all, in which case the argument is not hardship but that the levy should never have issued.
A reason printed on your letter that does not match you — federal contractor, when you are not one and never have been.

If the money is still inside the 21 days, that is today's call. (800) 236-3741, or Book a time →.

Where this sits in the sequence

Notice	What it is
LT11	The letter that should have come first — the Final Notice and your 30 days.
CP90C▶ You are here	Notice of seizure and your right to a hearing. The levy already happened; the 30-day hearing right starts now.
CP92	If it was your state tax refund rather than assets — the same post-levy hearing right.
CP90	Every notice that carries this Collection Due Process right, on one page.

The letter that should have come first: LT11 — the Final Notice and your 30 days → If it was your state refund rather than assets: CP92 → Which code is which: CP90 — every notice that carries this right → All notices: The IRS notice index → Getting a bank levy released: Bank levy release →

Frequently asked

Why did the IRS levy without warning me first?

Because one of four narrow exceptions in section 6330(f) applied — a jeopardy finding, a levy on a state tax refund, a disqualified employment tax levy, or a federal contractor levy. The same subsection still entitles you to a hearing within a reasonable time after the levy, and your CP90C is how that right is delivered.

How long do I have to request the hearing?

30 days from the date printed on the notice, on Form 12153. The regulation applies the same 30-day period to post-levy notices as to pre-levy ones, and your letter prints the resulting date.

Will requesting a hearing get my money back?

It is not built to do that — a hearing looks at whether collection action is appropriate going forward. Where funds have not yet been remitted, a levy release under section 6343 may stop them moving. Where money has already gone to the IRS, the separate remedy is a return of property under section 6343(d), which is narrower and harder. You can request any of these alongside the hearing.

The levy is causing real hardship. Does that help?

Yes, and how much depends on what was levied. The IRS's own rule is that a wage levy causing immediate economic hardship must be released, and a bank or other account levy causing the same hardship may be released. Be ready to provide financial information when you call.

What if the 30 days has already passed?

An equivalent hearing is available for one year from the date of the levy notice. It gets you a conversation with Appeals, but levy action is not prohibited during it, the collection period is not suspended, and it cannot be taken to Tax Court.

Can they take my house next?

Not without a court. A principal residence is exempt from levy unless a judge or magistrate of a United States district court approves the levy in writing, and the district courts have exclusive jurisdiction over that approval.

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. If a CP90C has arrived, the useful thing we can do quickly is read the account and tell you which of the arguments above you actually have — hardship, an expired collection period, a balance that is wrong, or a levy that did not follow procedure.

The first call is free. Thirty minutes. No obligation, no conditions, no strings. You will come away knowing whether what was taken is still recoverable, which of the four arguments you actually have, and what to say when you call to ask for a release. You do not need paperwork organized; the notice and a rough sense of the years involved is enough to start.

Call (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 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