CP80 and CP080B: Credits on Your Account but No Return on File
By Forrest Baumhover, CFP®, EA · Last verified October 28, 2026
A CP80 or CP080B tells you the IRS holds payments or credits for a tax period but has no tax return to match them. File the return, or tell the IRS where the credit belongs.
If you got this letter
Got a CP80 or CP080B in the Mail?
The IRS sent this notice because it put payments or other credits on your tax account for the form and year shown on the notice, but it has not received the tax return for that year.
If you have to file that return, file it now and send your signed return to the address at the top of the notice. If you already filed it, send a newly signed copy to that address.
If the money belongs to a different form, year, or tax ID number, call the number on your notice so the IRS can move it. The IRS keeps sending this notice until it gets a return or settles where the credit belongs.
What the notice says
The IRS page for this notice says: “We credited payments and/or other credits to your tax account for the form and tax period shown on your notice. However, we haven’t received your tax return.” In plain terms, the IRS holds money for a tax period and has no return to apply it against.
The notice asks for the missing return.
CP80, CP080 and CP080B: which name is yours
The Internal Revenue Manual (IRM), the IRS’s own staff rulebook, uses two names. It calls the individual notice CP80 and the business notice CP080, and says both ask the taxpayer for a signed copy of a return for a period that shows a credit balance and no return. The IRS’s explainer page carries the label CP080B. Whichever label your notice shows, the request is the same.
What you need to do
The IRS page gives three paths. If you have to file the return, file it today and send the signed return to the address at the top of the notice. If you already filed, send a newly signed copy to the address on your notice. If you want the credit moved to another tax form, tax period, or taxpayer ID number, call the number on your notice and give the details of the account that should get it.
The IRM tells IRS staff how they handle each reply. A signed return goes on for processing. A reply that says you do not have to file goes to the IRM’s procedure for taxpayers with no filing requirement. A reply that says the IRS put a payment in the wrong place leads to a credit transfer. A return for a different period or ID number gets a letter asking for the right return, and the CP80 notices keep coming.
Why the notice keeps coming, and when it stops
The IRM says the IRS issues more CP80 and CP080 notices on a set cycle until a return posts or the IRS resolves the credit balance. The IRS records each one as transaction code 971 with action code 297.
The IRM also lists cases that get no CP80 at all. One is a period the IRS already has in a delinquency investigation, its process for chasing a missing return. The unfiled-return notices on our return delinquency notices page belong to that process.
The credits do not wait forever. IRM 21.2.4.3.44 ties them to a statute expiration date, a legal deadline, and says the IRS sends a final notice six months before that date: CP81 for an individual, CP081 for a business. Our CP081B page covers that final notice for a business and the refund deadline it warns about.
What people mistake the CP80 for
Some readers take the CP80 for a bill. It asks for a return, not a payment.
Others take it for the final notice. The CP80 repeats on a cycle. The final notice is the CP81 or CP081, which IRM 21.2.4.3.44 says issues six months before the statute expiration date. The IRS’s page for the CP081B says that, generally, you must file a return within 3 years from its due date, including extensions, to receive a refund of an overpayment, and that the law sets strict time limits for refunding or transferring credits.
Common Questions
Do I owe money?
The notice asks for the missing return, not a payment. Whether you owe more depends on the tax that return shows against the credits the IRS holds.
I already filed. What now?
The IRS page says to send a newly signed copy of the return to the address shown on your notice.
The payment belongs to a different year or ID number. What do I do?
Call the number on your notice and give the details of the account that should get the credit. The IRS page lists that as the way to have the credit transferred.
Will the IRS keep the money if I ignore this?
It can. The IRS’s CP081B page says that after the refund statute expiration date passes, the IRS can’t refund any overpayments. IRM 21.2.4.3.44 says the IRS sends a final notice, CP81 or CP081, six months before that date.