CP71C: What It Means and How to Respond

What the notice actually says

CP71C restates the balance due on a tax account — tax, penalties, and accrued interest — and tells the taxpayer it "requires your immediate attention." It also carries a standing passport warning: because of the unpaid balance, a passport application or renewal could be denied, or an existing passport revoked, under the State Department certification process described below.

The IRS page for this notice states no response date. It says that if you don't pay in full or establish a payment plan, the IRS may file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien, subject to any applicable Collection Due Process rights, and may assign the account to a private collection agency.

Who actually gets one, and why

CP71C goes out once a year to any account with an unpaid balance, and the IRS is explicit that it goes out "even if you have already worked with the IRS to address your balance through a payment plan or if the IRS has determined your balance is currently not collectible due to hardship." It is not tied to where an account sits in the active collection stream — it is a periodic snapshot mailed regardless of status.

In practice that means the same letter lands on a client who is current on an installment agreement, a client whose account was placed in Currently Not Collectible (CNC) status because of genuine financial hardship, and a client whose account is simply dormant. The CNC calculator is the right tool for confirming whether a client's numbers still support that status before assuming the letter can be set aside.

Is there a deadline, and does anything happen if it passes

The IRS page for CP71C states no response date, but it does not say waiting is safe. It says the notice requires immediate attention and that, without full payment or a payment plan, the IRS may file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien. Read the date and instructions printed on the client's own copy.

CP501, CP503, and CP504 are sequential balance-due notices, each with its own response window. This guide could not confirm from IRS pages where CP71C sits in that sequence or which accounts receive it, so do not treat it as routine.

The one real teeth in CP71C: passport certification

The passport warning is not boilerplate. Under IRC §7345, the IRS can certify a "seriously delinquent tax debt" — an assessed, unpaid liability over an inflation-indexed threshold ($66,000 for 2026, up from the $50,000 the statute set in 2015) where a lien has been filed with rights exhausted, or a levy has issued — to the State Department, which can then deny a passport application or revoke an existing passport.

Two things matter for a practitioner reading CP71C on a client's behalf. First, the statutory exceptions to certification are narrow: a timely installment agreement, an accepted offer in compromise, a pending Collection Due Process (CDP) hearing request, or pending innocent spouse relief. Second, and this is the detail that actually resolves most CP71C calls, the IRS applies a broader administrative exclusion on top of the statute: an account the IRS has determined is currently not collectible due to hardship is excluded from certification entirely, along with accounts in bankruptcy, identified identity-theft cases, and federally declared disaster areas. A client in genuine CNC status is not at passport risk from this notice — confirming that status is current is the actual next step, not treating the passport line as a threat in itself.

A certification that goes out anyway isn't the end of the road. Under IRC §7345(e), a taxpayer can bring a civil action against the IRS in the U.S. Tax Court or a U.S. district court to have the certification reviewed, and if the court finds it erroneous, it can order the IRS to notify the State Department that the certification was wrong. That's a real judicial check on an erroneous certification, not just an internal administrative correction — worth knowing before assuming the only recourse is calling IRS collections.

What to do next

Start by confirming why the account still carries a balance under CP71C: review the client's account transcript to verify the balance is accurate and to confirm what status the account is actually in — an active installment agreement, CNC, or nothing at all. A CP71C on an account with no arrangement in place is the real signal to act, since it means the account has gone quiet without ever being resolved.

If CNC status is confirmed and the numbers still hold up, note the file and keep the account's status under review. If the balance is unpaid with no arrangement, or if it's near the seriously-delinquent threshold, this is the point to size a payment plan with The Federal Tax Desk's IA Payment Calculator or revisit CNC eligibility, rather than let the account drift toward the notice stream that does carry deadlines.

What people mistake CP71C for

Clients treat any IRS envelope with a balance and the word "immediate" on it as an emergency, and CP71C's passport language adds to that. The IRS page for CP71C says the notice requires immediate attention and that the IRS may file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien without full payment or a payment plan. Treat it as a balance-due notice: confirm the account's status and the balance before the client decides anything.

A client who has been in CNC status for years can still stop checking whether the hardship determination matches current finances. A CP71C is a prompt to re-verify status.

Common Questions