Collection due process: the hearing, and the faster alternative
An independent review of a proposed levy or a filed lien, with judicial review behind it. It is the strongest procedural right in collection, and it is available in a 30-day window that most people miss.
THE CLOCK — 30 DAYS, THEN ONE YEAR FOR A WEAKER VERSION
A request within 30 days is a collection due process hearing: it stops levy action, suspends the collection period, and preserves Tax Court review. Within one year but after the 30 days, it is an equivalent hearing, which does none of those three things.
Two triggers, one right
The hearing right attaches to two events. A final notice of intent to levy — LT11, Letter 1058, CP90 or CP297 — gives 30 days before the levy may proceed. And the filing of a Notice of Federal Tax Lien produces Letter 3172 within five business days, which gives its own 30 days.
The lien version is easy to miss because the filing has already happened. The hearing is not about undoing history; it is about whether the filing was appropriate and whether it should be withdrawn, and about the collection alternative that might replace it.
Either way the instrument is Form 12153, and either way the date on the letter starts the count.
What Appeals will consider
Collection alternatives, which is what most hearings are really about: an installment agreement, a partial pay agreement, an offer in compromise, not-collectible status, or a lien withdrawal or subordination. Appeals can consider a proposal the collection function declined.
Whether the proposed action balances the need to collect efficiently against the intrusiveness of it — a real statutory standard that gives a well-supported argument somewhere to land.
Spousal defenses, and procedural failures: whether the assessment was properly made, whether the required notices were sent to the last known address, whether the collection period has actually expired.
The underlying liability, but only where you did not receive a deficiency notice and have had no other opportunity to dispute it. Where a deficiency notice was issued and ignored, the liability is off the table here, and audit reconsideration is the route instead.
HOW TO MAKE THE REQUEST USEFUL
- File within 30 days of the date on the notice — the single decision that determines everything else
- State a specific alternative, not a request for time
- Bring every unfiled return current before the hearing, since no alternative is approved without them
- Complete the financial statement with documents, not estimates
- Raise procedural points explicitly — they are waived if not put in issue
- Avoid frivolous arguments, which carry their own penalty and forfeit the hearing
What the outcome is worth
Appeals issues a Notice of Determination. You then have 30 days to petition the Tax Court, which reviews it. That judicial backstop is the difference between this and every other administrative conversation with the IRS.
The collection period is suspended while the hearing and any appeal are pending, which extends the government's collection window. On an account close to expiry, that cost is worth weighing before filing on reflex.
An equivalent hearing, requested after the 30 days but within a year, gets the case in front of Appeals and can produce a good practical result. It does not stop levy action, does not suspend the collection period, and produces no determination a court will review.
When the Collection Appeals Program fits better
The Collection Appeals Program is a separate, faster route on Form 9423. It covers a levy, a seizure, a lien filing, and the rejection or termination of an installment agreement.
It is quick — days rather than months — and it can be used when the due process window has closed. Its limits are that Appeals cannot consider collection alternatives in it, and there is no judicial review of the outcome.
So the choice is a matter of what is needed. To stop something happening now, on a procedural basis, and quickly: the appeals program. To have an alternative considered on the record, with a court behind it: the due process hearing, if the 30 days are still open.
Where this comes from
The statutes behind this page, so you can check any of it rather than take it on trust.
- IRC §6330
- Notice and opportunity for a hearing before levy, and the right to judicial review of the determination.
- IRC §6320
- The equivalent right after a Notice of Federal Tax Lien is filed — five business days to notify you, then 30 days to request.
- IRC §6330(c)(2)(B)
- The underlying liability may be challenged only where no deficiency notice was received and there was no other opportunity to dispute it.
- IRC §6330(c)(3)
- Appeals must weigh whether the collection action balances efficient collection against intrusiveness.
- IRC §6330(e)
- Suspension of levy action and of the collection period while a timely hearing is pending.
This page explains what the IRS or the Massachusetts Department of Revenue does and cites the statute. It is not advice about your situation, which depends on facts none of this knows. Tell us what your letter says and what date is on it. Please do not send Social Security numbers or tax documents through the form.
Final Notice of Intent to Levy
The notice that authorizes levies on wages and bank accounts, and the one that carries a 30-day appeal right worth more than almost anything else in the collection process.
Federal tax lien
Two different things share the name. One attaches to everything you own the moment a balance goes unpaid. The other is a public document filed later, and it is the one that shows up on a title search.
Installment agreement
A monthly payment plan under section 6159. Below certain balances it is close to automatic and requires no financial disclosure at all; above them it becomes a negotiation about what you can afford.
Innocent spouse relief
A joint return makes both signatories liable for the whole amount, regardless of who earned the income or who prepared it. Section 6015 provides three routes out, and they are not interchangeable.
Questions about collection due process.
- What is the difference between a CDP hearing and an equivalent hearing?
- Timing, and three consequences. A timely request stops levy action, suspends the collection period, and preserves Tax Court review. An equivalent hearing, requested within a year but after the 30 days, does none of those.
- Can I dispute the amount at the hearing?
- Only where you did not receive a notice of deficiency and have had no other opportunity to dispute it. Otherwise the liability is settled for these purposes and the hearing is about collection.
- Does requesting a hearing stop a levy already in place?
- A timely request generally suspends further levy action for the periods covered. It does not by itself release a levy already served, which is a separate request on separate grounds.
- Do I need to have filed everything before the hearing?
- To get an alternative approved, yes. Appeals will not accept an agreement or an offer while returns are outstanding, so a hearing that arrives with unfiled periods is largely wasted.
- Is it worth requesting if I have nothing to propose?
- Rarely. It uses the one hearing available for that period, suspends the collection period while it runs, and leaves you where you started. The value is in the proposal it carries.
- What if I disagree with the determination?
- Petition the Tax Court within 30 days of the Notice of Determination. That right exists only where the original request was made within the 30-day window.
Tell us what the letter says and what date is on it.
Scope and price in writing before anything starts. Where what you need is something we do not do, you will be told that instead.
Please don't send Social Security numbers or tax documents through this form.