IRSLetterDecoded
It lands in the mailbox and the stomach drops. The firms on TV want $10,000 before they'll look at it — and the average letter like yours is for about half that. So people Google the little code at the top of the letter at midnight.
Type that code below. No upload, no account, nothing personal asked. You'll get what the letter is, how serious it is, your real deadline — counted from the date on the letter — and your first move.
No upload. No account. Nothing about you is asked for or stored — the code and the date are all this needs.
It sits at the top of the letter — CP or LT followed by numbers (CP2000, LT11), or a letter number like 1058.
Deadlines run from this date, not from the day the letter reached you.
Free, instant, and nothing is stored. The decoder covers 42 notices — the ones that make up nearly all IRS mail.
How serious is it?
Every decoded letter gets one of five stamps. No scare words, no false comfort — the same scale whether the letter is a routine statement or the last stop before a levy.
A statement or a record. Nothing to pay, nothing to prove. File it and move on.
Real, but not urgent. A simple, on-time answer closes it.
Money or rights are in play. Ignoring it moves you up the ladder.
A right with an expiry date, or a levy step with your name on it.
The last stop before the IRS can take money or file its claim. The deadline on this letter is the deadline.
If you do nothing
A balance you don't answer moves up a fixed staircase: reminder, sterner reminder, the notice that puts your state tax refund at risk, the final notice that hands you 30 days to ask for a hearing — and then the levy itself. Most people meet this staircase one letter at a time and never see the whole thing. See it once, whole, and every letter you hold makes sense.
The 42 letters
Sixteen letters, from the first bill (CP14) to the final notice before a levy (LT11, Letter 1058) — and the defaulted-payment-plan letter (CP523) that surprises people most.
The CP2000 family: the IRS computer thinks your return missed income. It is a proposal, not a bill — and the 60-day math-error clock (CP11) is the most-missed deadline in tax mail.
Twelve notices in this family are really one thing — an examination — plus the letters that open it (Letter 566) and the 90-day letter that closes it (Letter 531).
Prove-it's-you letters (5071C, 4883C), refund holds (CP05), and the returns the IRS filed for you (CP2566) when you didn't.
One payment. No subscription. Yours to keep — every notice, every letter, every script.
Straight answers
No. IRSLetterDecoded is an education product from CLEARDEAL LLC. We are not the IRS, we are not a tax firm, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by the IRS. We decode letters in plain words — the IRS itself stays the only place that can change your account.
Because the code at the top of the letter is all anyone needs to explain it — and a letter from the IRS carries your name, address, and part of your Social Security number. Sites that ask for the upload are asking for that too. We never ask for it, anywhere on this site.
The big tax-relief firms publish their minimums: the largest say, in their own words, that they help people who owe at least $10,000. The average income-mismatch bill is about $5,390. If you owe less than their door, you are not their customer — you are on your own with a letter you can't read. That gap is exactly what this site is for.
No — and be suspicious of anyone who promises that before reading your letter. What this site does: tell you what the letter means, when your answer is due, what your real options are (including the free ones the ads don't mention), and how to answer so your answer counts. Some letters are simply wrong, and some penalties come off with one phone call — the Kit shows you both. Nobody honest can promise an outcome.
The 42 notices here cover the overwhelming majority of IRS mail. If yours is different, the IRS's own notice index and the Taxpayer Advocate Service's notice index list every code — and the ladder page here still shows you where an unanswered letter leads.