IRS Controversy · Brief · Working level
CDP hearings: what Sections 6320 and 6330 actually preserve
A Collection Due Process hearing, requested within 30 days of a lien filing or final levy notice, suspends most levy action and preserves Tax Court review — the only routine judicial check on IRS collection. Timing rules and raisable issues, explained.
A Collection Due Process hearing is the single most important procedural right in IRS collections. Requested within 30 days of a Notice of Federal Tax Lien filing (Section 6320) or a final notice of intent to levy (Section 6330), it suspends most levy action while pending and — uniquely among collection remedies — preserves the right to have the U.S. Tax Court review the IRS's collection decision. Miss the 30 days and the fallback "equivalent hearing" offers the same conversation with neither protection.
Timing: the 30-day windows
The two triggers work slightly differently. For levies, the final notice (LT11, Letter 1058, or CP90) starts a 30-day window before the IRS may seize most property; the hearing right is prospective. For liens, the IRS files the notice first and then notifies the taxpayer, who has 30 days beginning five business days after filing; the hearing right is retrospective — the lien is already public. Earlier notices in the stream (CP14 through CP504) carry no CDP rights, a distinction mapped in the collection defense guide.
A timely request suspends levies on the periods at issue and tolls the 10-year collection statute during the hearing and any appeal. A request within one year but after day 30 yields an equivalent hearing: Appeals will still talk, and will often reach the same settlement, but levies may proceed and the resulting decision letter is unreviewable in Tax Court.
What you can raise
At the hearing — usually a phone conference with a settlement officer from the IRS Independent Office of Appeals — three categories of issues are on the table:
The scope of a CDP hearing is broad on collection alternatives and narrow on the tax itself.
| Issue | Raisable? |
|---|---|
| Collection alternatives: installment agreement, offer in compromise, currently-not-collectible | Yes, always — this is the core of most hearings |
| Lien remedies: withdrawal, discharge, subordination | Yes |
| Spousal defenses (innocent spouse) | Yes |
| Appropriateness of the collection action; balancing test under §6330(c)(3) | Yes — Appeals must weigh intrusiveness against efficient collection |
| The underlying liability | Only if no notice of deficiency was received and no prior opportunity to dispute existed |
| Issues already litigated or decided in a prior hearing | No |
The underlying-liability rule does the most work in practice. A taxpayer who received and ignored a 90-day letter cannot reargue the audit at CDP. But assessable penalties that never go through deficiency procedures — the Section 6672 trust fund recovery penalty, most international information-return penalties — frequently can be contested at CDP if no prior Appeals opportunity was offered, making the hearing the de facto merits forum for them. Procedural defects are also fair game: a missed supervisory approval under Section 6751(b) can be raised as part of Appeals' mandatory verification that legal requirements were met.
Tax Court review, and the honest limits
An adverse determination is appealable to the Tax Court within 30 days. Review of collection-alternative decisions is for abuse of discretion — deferential, but real: courts do remand cases where Appeals ignored submitted financials or rubber-stamped the file. Where the underlying liability was properly at issue, review is de novo. The forum consequences of that split are discussed in Tax Court versus the refund forum.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the deadline to request a CDP hearing?
- Thirty days. For a levy, the clock runs from the date of the final notice of intent to levy under Section 6330; for a lien, from five business days after the Notice of Federal Tax Lien is filed, per Section 6320. The request is made on Form 12153. A late request converts to an equivalent hearing, which carries no levy suspension and no Tax Court review.
- Can you challenge the underlying tax liability at a CDP hearing?
- Only if you did not receive a statutory notice of deficiency and had no other prior opportunity to dispute the liability. Taxpayers who ignored a 90-day letter cannot relitigate the tax at CDP. Assessable penalties that never pass through deficiency procedures — like the trust fund recovery penalty, if no prior Appeals conference was offered — often can be challenged.
- Does a CDP request stop the collection statute?
- Yes. A timely CDP request suspends both levy action and the 10-year collection statute while the hearing and any Tax Court review are pending. That trade-off is real: the hearing buys protection now at the cost of extending how long the IRS can collect later.