You got a letter from the IRS. Read this first
A notice number, a response date, and a careful comparison to your return. What to do first when an IRS letter arrives, and how to spot a fake.
Quick answers
- What should I do when I get a letter from the IRS?
- Find the notice number in the upper right corner and the response date, pull the return for the year the letter names, and compare the figures line by line. Then reply in writing by the printed date using the response form or address given.
- How do I know if an IRS letter is real?
- The IRS opens contact by mail, not by phone, text, email or social media, and no genuine notice demands payment by gift card, wire transfer or cryptocurrency. If a letter looks wrong, call the IRS on a number you looked up yourself.
- What happens if I ignore an IRS notice?
- The window printed on it closes and your options narrow. A notice that proposes a change is the IRS telling you what it intends to do and giving you time to say why it should not; once that date passes, the proposal generally becomes the next document in the sequence.
Most IRS letters are narrower than they look. They usually concern one tax year, one line of one return, and one question, and the two things that tell you which letter you are holding are the notice number and the response date.
Six things to do with the envelope open
- Find the notice or letter number. It is printed in the upper right corner, usually as a CP or LTR code, and it is what identifies the letter to anyone you show it to.
- Find the response date. Some notices are informational and ask for nothing; the ones that ask for something print a date, and that date is what protects your right to disagree.
- Pull the return for the year the notice names, including the schedules, and set it beside the letter.
- Compare the IRS's figures to yours, line by line. A notice generally shows what the IRS has, what your return said, and the difference.
- Decide whether you agree, disagree, or agree in part, then respond in writing by the printed date using the response form or the address in the notice.
- Keep a copy of the notice, your reply, and everything you sent with it, along with proof of mailing if you mailed it.
Responding by the date matters even when you disagree, and especially then. The IRS asks you to reply by the due date so that it can consider your position, and missing the date can move the matter to the next stage while your objection is still unsent.
The IRS writes first
The IRS opens contact by mail. It does not begin with a phone call, a text message, an email, or a direct message on social media, and it does not start an examination by telephone.
That single fact is the most reliable scam test available. Someone contacting you out of nowhere about money you supposedly owe the IRS, in any channel other than the mail, is generally not the IRS. The impersonation scripts the IRS warns about share a shape: they want payment now or else, they threaten arrest or deportation, they ask for card or banking numbers on the spot, and they do not let you question or appeal the amount.
Common notices, in one line each
- CP2000 — the IRS's records of your income do not match your return, and it proposes a change. It is not a bill and not an audit.
- CP14 — a balance is due on a return you filed. This one is a bill, and it is the first notice in the collection sequence.
- CP12 — the IRS corrected something on your return and your refund changed as a result, up or down.
- Letter 5071C — the IRS wants to verify that you are the person who filed, before it will finish processing the return.
- CP05 — your refund is on hold while the IRS reviews part of the return, often the withholding or the credits claimed.
Each of these has its own page on the IRS site, reachable by searching the notice number. Read that page before you read anything else about the letter.
What "proposed" means
Several notices, the CP2000 among them, propose a change rather than bill you for one. The distinction is real. A proposal is the IRS telling you what it intends to do and giving you a window to say why it should not.
Inside that window, the answer is a response, with documents, sent the way the notice asks. If the window closes with no reply, the proposal generally becomes the next document in the sequence, and the routes available to you narrow. Nothing about that is automatic in your favor, and nothing about it is hopeless either; it simply runs on the dates printed on the page.
When to bring it to a preparer
Bring in a preparer for any notice that shows a balance due or proposes a change to your return. Those are the two categories where the cost of answering badly is measured in money, and where the record you build now decides what you can argue later.
Also worth a second opinion: a notice about a year you are unsure you filed, a notice naming income you do not recognize, a notice about a return your ex-spouse also signed, and any letter that arrives after you have already responded to an earlier one about the same year.
Bring the notice itself, the return for that year, and anything you have already sent the IRS. A preparer who can see all three usually gets to the answer faster than one working from the letter alone.