At the recent Fall ABA meeting there was a panel discussing Collection Appeals (which Christine was a panelist on). A discussion arose about the purpose of the CP504 “Notice of Intent to Levy,” since it is not a “real” notice of intent to levy for IRC § 6330 purposes. It is, however, a “real” notice of intent to levy for IRC § 6331(d) purposes… but what is the distinction, and when does it matter?
I have historically looked at the CP504 as little more than an IRS scare tactic strongly encouraging voluntary payment. My view has since changed, thanks in part to the ABA meeting. In this post, I’ll talk about the importance of the CP504 and why the language on the notice does such a bad job of explaining what actual legal consequence it carries that it almost shouldn’t carry legal consequence at all.
read more…This is not the first time Procedurally Taxing or the tax community at large has weighed in on the problems of the CP504. Keith posted about how misleading the notice is back in 2016. The main issue Keith raised was that the CP504 misleads people into thinking that if you don’t respond to the CP504 Notice the IRS can levy on things that it cannot levy on (yet).
In other words, it misleads people.
The IRS heard Keith’s complaint, and admirably took some steps to remedy the issue by changing the language of the CP504 Notice a few years later. Keith posted about this small step forward with a copy of the new CP504 Notice back in 2018.
Flash forward to present day, and a newly formatted CP504 Notice…
I don’t exactly know what decisions were made, but we appear to be back in the bad old days Keith had originally lamented. My clients routinely receive CP504 Notices like the one here. The offending language is exactly what Keith had highlighted before:
Consequences If You Don’t Pay Immediately
We may levy your income and bank accounts, as well as seize your property or rights to property if you fail to comply. Property includes wages and other income, bank accounts, business assets, personal assets (including your car and home), Social Security benefits, Alaska Permanent Fund dividends, or state tax refunds. [Emphasis in original]
Now I am but a humble tax lawyer and professor, but in reading this I can imagine someone concluding that failing to pay the IRS immediately upon receiving the CP504 means that the IRS could levy their income and bank account. Those are the bolded terms, after all. However, because I also know that to be untrue (the IRS cannot levy on my bank account and wages if I don’t respond to the CP504), I have tended to read the notice as being little more than a scare tactic and carrying no real legal consequence. My misunderstanding about the CP504’s consequences are in no small part because the consequences the CP504 focuses on so boldly are incorrect.
Actual Legal Consequences
But the CP504 actually does carry important consequences, such that it is a letter you should actually pay close attention to. The consequences it carries are so simple, it is a shame that the letter doesn’t really highlight them:
First, the CP504 is the notice that allows the IRS to levy on certain property prior to offering a CDP hearing. For my clients that is almost exclusively their state tax refunds. The CP504 mentions this in very small print at the bottom of page 2. The full list of pre-CDP Notice levy property is at IRC § 6330(f). I always knew the IRS could levy on state tax refunds prior to giving a CDP hearing, but admittedly never really considered the CP504’s role in that process.
Second, and generally less importantly, the CP504 notice bumps up the “failure to pay” rate from 0.5% per month up to 1%. See IRC § 6651(d). This is generally less important for my clients because the maximum amount of penalty cannot exceed 25% in the aggregate, and a lot of very late tax years hit that mark quickly. Also, most of my clients are able to settle their tax debts with an Offer in Compromise, such that penalties are irrelevant.
With Legal Consequences Comes… Legal Consequences
So now, despite the CP504 Notices best efforts, we have a clearer idea of what the CP504 Notice actually does. But what happens if the CP504 Notice is defective? Because it serves an actual, legal purpose, defects may carry actual legal consequences.
As Keith noted in his prior post, the IRS used to combine the IRC § 6331(d) notice and IRC § 6330 CDP opportunity into a single letter. Now those two statutorily required notices are “spread” across two letters. This may be a self-inflicted wound by the IRS. For one, an extra letter adds real costs to the IRS: both the 6331(d) and 6330 notices are supposed to be sent certified. Arguably having two (required) letters instead of one essentially doubles the IRS’s chances of screwing up.
Possibly, the IRS could argue that the current IRC § 6330 letter (usually, the LT11) also meets and incorporates the IRC § 6331(d) requirements, such that it current practice is really a belt-and-suspenders approach. In other words, a bad CP504 letter would be “fixed” by the later LT11 letter. I don’t know that this argument has ever been raised. But even if it was, it would certainly not prevail for levies that precede the LT11 (for example, state tax refunds). Accordingly, the issuance of the CP504 Notice remains worth looking into.
For a CP504 Notice to meet the IRC § 6331(d) requirements it must be sent (by registered or certified mail) to the taxpayers last known address no less than 30 days before the levy. I somewhat doubt that any such letter that isn’t sent certified/registered would be considered invalid. (I couldn’t find any freely available cases, but U.S. v. MPM Financial Group, Inc. (2005 WL 1322801, at *4 (E.D. Ky. May 27, 2005) aff’d, 215 F. App’x 476 (6th Cir. 2007) makes that point. The real issues are timing and address concerns.
Beginning with the last known address: this has primarily been an important topic on deficiency notices for some time (see posts here and here, among others). There is always a chance (perhaps a significant chance, given the IRS’s IT infrastructure) that the IRS will send a notice to the wrong last-known address. In such a case if the taxpayer doesn’t otherwise have actual knowledge of the notice, it should invalidate the CP504 Notice from serving its IRC § 6331(d) “notice” function.
What happens after a defective CP504 Notice has been mailed may be interesting. If the IRS levies on your state tax refund you will thereafter get a “Notice of Intent to Levy” under IRC § 6330. In my experience, a lot of time the IRS will send a CP504 Notice well in advance of actually taking any other collection actions, such that they may have had the wrong address in their file for the CP504 Notice, and then have corrected it by the time of the actual state tax levy.
If the state tax refund levy was improper because there was no valid IRC § 6331(d) notice preceding it, arguably you should be returned the state tax refund proceeds. That, at least, is the argument I’d make in the CDP hearing: the IRS plainly did not follow “the requirements of any applicable law or administrative procedure” in taking the refund. Accordingly, you should get it back: a very important potential remedy, given the limitations on refund jurisdiction in Tax Court. This matters enough to many of my clients (Minnesota income tax returns have some lucrative refundable credits) that a detailed review of the CP504 Notice validity is warranted.
My Plea: Make the Letter Useful
Again, the CP504 really only carries two legal consequences: (1) precursor to levy on very specific property (that might not matter at all to people in states without an income tax) and (2) increase the failure to pay penalty rate. If the goal of the notice is to inform people about the legal consequences of being issued a CP504 notice it does a tremendously bad job of it. Instead it reads like a scare tactic.
Perhaps this serves a useful function for the IRS in getting some people to voluntarily pay, but I think it comes at a reputational cost, and scares people into sub-optimal resolutions. A lot of my clients receive state tax refunds each year (particularly state property tax refunds) which they count on. A lot of my clients also are very clearly “can’t pay” candidates for an Offer in Compromise or Currently Not Collectible status.
The IRS’s mission isn’t simply to “get the most money” out of people. If it was, then the CP504 Notice would probably be justified. Rather, the IRS’s purported mission is to “Provide America’s taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities[.]” It is hard to see a misleading letter as “helping them to understand,” and I’d say the CP504 is an example of straying from that mission.
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Not only have all courts so far held that the Tax Court lacks jurisdiction in CDP to order refunds under its general review jurisdiction at 6330(d)(1) (see Greene-Thapedi (T.C), Willson (D.C. Cir.), and McLane (4th Cir.)), but it seems clear that the CDP injunctive power given to the Tax Court does not authorize the Tax Court to order refunds of improperly-levied items. This is in contrast to the Tax Court’s injunctive power under 6213(a), which allows the court to order refunds.
The third sentence of 6213(a) reads: “Notwithstanding the provisions of section 7421(a), the making of such assessment or the beginning of such proceeding or levy during the time such prohibition is in force may be enjoined by a proceeding in the proper court, including the Tax Court, and a refund may be ordered by such court of any amount collected within the period during which the Secretary is prohibited from collecting by levy or through a proceeding in court under the provisions of this subsection.”
The third sentence of 6330(e)(1) reads: “Notwithstanding the provisions of section 7421(a), the beginning of a levy or proceeding during the time the suspension under this paragraph is in force may be enjoined by a proceeding in the proper court, including the Tax Court. The Tax Court shall have no jurisdiction under this paragraph to enjoin any action or proceeding unless a timely appeal has been filed under subsection (d)(1) and then only in respect of the unpaid tax or proposed levy to which the determination being appealed relates.”
Note that, though the 6330(e)(1) language largely tracks the 6213(a) language, 6330(e)(1) contains no mention of refunds and seems to limit the Tax Court’s injunctive power only to the “unpaid tax or proposed levy to which the determination being appealed relates”, such that a payment by levy (say, improperly done before CDP through a levy on state tax refunds after a CP504 not sent to a last known address) does not appear covered by the language.
“If the state tax refund levy was improper because there was no valid IRC § 6331(d) notice preceding it, arguably you should be returned the state tax refund proceeds. That, at least, is the argument I’d make in the CDP hearing: the IRS plainly did not follow “the requirements of any applicable law or administrative procedure” in taking the refund.”
If the IRS sends a (maybe valid) IRC § 6331(d) notice but not an IRC § 6330 notice, the IRS ignores demands for CDP hearings and Tax Court denies jurisdiction. If the IRS levied state tax refunds then the victim would have to file a refund suit in a court which frequently doesn’t understand tax laws.
I wonder why IRC § 31 isn’t an applicable law or administrative procedure, especially when the amount of withholding exceeds the asserted penalty. The IRS cited Greene-Thapedi and Tax Court agreed.
I happen to appreciate the comments contained here. One thing that I would like to point out, that in the most recent 6-8 months of this year, my clients have been getting SNODs for not answering a CP2000 and never sees any of the other notices, especially a CP504 or even a LT 11. And of course, no notice a the taxpayer’s right to a hearing.
When I demanded a CP2000 the IRS refused. That (followed by abatement and deficiency proceedings) would have been the only way for Tax Court to acquire jurisdiction over IRC § 31. The IRS knows how to evade judicial review.
The main problem that I have been having repeatedly for years with the CP504 is its clear statement that “you can file an appeal.” I have filed countless Collection Appeal Requests in response to these notices, and imagine that 95 percent of them never receive any response whatsoever.