Appeal Channel Router
Route a dispute to the correct IRS appeal channel — Collection Due Process, the CDP Equivalent Hearing, the Collection Appeals Program, an Offer in Compromise rejection appeal, or Audit Reconsideration — with the deadline and the IRC/IRM citation shown at every branch, not just the final answer.
How this compares to the IRS’s own tools
The IRS’s own appeal pages (irs.gov/appeals) describe each channel separately, with no single page that asks which one applies to a given fact pattern — and none of them show the governing citation behind a deadline the way this router does at every branch. Picking the wrong channel can silently give up rights a taxpayer never knew they had: an untimely CDP request becomes an Equivalent Hearing with no Tax Court review in most cases, and a Collection Appeals Program decision is final and binding with no judicial review at all, unlike a timely CDP determination.
This router does not re-build ground the Federal Tax Desk’s other tools already cover. For administrative penalty relief (the 2026 Automatic Exemption from Penalty program, First-Time Abate, or reasonable cause), use the Penalty Relief Router (/penalty-relief-router). For sizing a collection alternative once a channel is chosen — an installment agreement, Currently Not Collectible status, or an Offer in Compromise — use the Collection Alternative Router (/collection-alternatives). For a Trust Fund Recovery Penalty dispute under IRC §6672 — which has its own protest route via Letter 1153/Form 2751, entirely separate from the Collection Appeals Program — the Federal Tax Desk has a TFRP Exposure Calculator; as of this writing that tool is not yet a live, reachable page on this site, so this router names it rather than linking to it.