Income mismatch & return changes
The IRS adjusted your return and applied part or all of your refund to a balance you owe for a different tax year — this notice explains the change and where the money went.
Handle it
The IRS adjusted your return and applied part or all of your refund to a balance you owe for a different tax year — this notice explains the change and where the money went.
Why you got it: You had a balance on another year's account when a refund posted on this one; the law lets the IRS move the money (26 U.S.C. 6402).
Not new tax. It's an accounting letter: a refund you expected was redirected to an older debt under the IRS's offset authority.
Your first move: Verify both sides: the adjustment to this return, and the older balance the refund went to. Errors usually hide in one of those two numbers.
The clock on this letter: No payment deadline — check the figures promptly.
Nothing is due on this notice. Challenges to the adjustment follow the notice's instructions; challenges to the older balance follow that year's rules.
Most CP10s are correct; verify once, then keep it with both years' records.
If that balance was wrong or already paid, that's the fight — not this notice.
Questions go to the number on the notice; keep the notice with both years' files.
'Your refund was seized — pay to release it' is a scam script. A real offset is visible on your transcripts.
The money stays applied. If either figure was wrong, correcting it gets harder as records age — transcripts keep the trail.
Where this sits on the ladder: This letter stands on its own track — see the collection ladder for the enforcement road.
One payment. No subscription. Yours to keep — every notice, every letter, every script.