IRS mail is a language with a small vocabulary, and learning it converts dread into information: every notice tells you exactly where you stand and how much time you have. This lesson is the decoder, organized the way the letters actually arrive.
The Balance-Due Stream
The CP14 opens: tax assessed, payment demanded, nothing enforceable yet. The CP501 and CP503 remind with rising temperature. The CP504 - deceptively titled a notice of intent to levy - authorizes only limited action like seizing state refunds, but signals the serious letter is next. That letter is the LT11 or Letter 1058, the Final Notice of Intent to Levy: the law requires it before wages or bank accounts can be touched, and it carries 30 days of collection due process rights - a hearing request that bars the levy while pending. It is the single most important letter in the stream and the most commonly ignored.
The Exam and Adjustment Letters
The CP2000 is not an audit - the matching computer found income your return missed and proposes tax on it, typically at gross numbers that ignore your basis and deductions; the right response is a reconciliation, not a check. Audit letters carry exam form numbers and define their scope. The 30-day letter after an exam opens your Appeals window. And the Notice of Deficiency - the 90-day letter - is the heavyweight: your only ticket to Tax Court before paying, on a deadline with no extensions.
The Single-Purpose Notices
The CP508C says your debt was certified to the State Department and your passport is in play. Lien filing notices arrive with their own hearing rights. The CP523 says your installment agreement is defaulting, with a cure window. The 5071C family holds your refund for identity verification. Each carries a deadline, and each deadline is a right that expires - which yields this lesson's universal rule: read every IRS letter for its date first and its content second. Or skip the decoding: send me any letter and I will tell you what it means and what the clock says, free.