LT11, Letter 1058, and CP90: The Final Notice of Intent to Levy

What the notice actually says

The IRS titles this notice "Final Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing," and it does exactly those two things. It tells you the IRS intends to seize property or rights to property to satisfy an unpaid balance, and it tells you that you may request a hearing before that happens. The IRS states the consequence plainly: it can attach a levy to wages or bank accounts up to the amount owed, and it may also file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien. (For how this notice fits among the others, see the IRS Notice Library.)

LT11, Letter 1058, and CP90 are the same document under three labels. The label differs because the issuing path differs — the Automated Collection System generates the LT11 or CP90 version, a Revenue Officer working the case in the field issues Letter 1058 — and taxpayers searching for any of the three numbers are looking at identical legal consequences and identical rights. Nothing in the analysis below changes depending on which number appears at the top of the page.

This is the notice CP504 is not. A client who believes the "final notice" already arrived, and who is holding a CP504, has not yet received this one.

What actually triggered it

Two statutes converge on this single piece of paper. IRC §6331(d) requires the IRS to give written notice of its intent to levy "no less than 30 days before the day of the levy," delivered in person, left at the dwelling or usual place of business, or sent by certified or registered mail to the last known address. IRC §6330(a) separately requires notice of the right to a hearing "not less than 30 days before the day of the first levy," and specifies what that notice must explain in plain language: the amount owed, the right to request a hearing within the 30-day window, the proposed collection action, and the available alternatives.

The IRS satisfies both requirements with one mailing, which is why the notice reads as two documents stapled together. IRM 5.11.1.3.2, Required Notices states the operative rule for practitioners directly: "The taxpayer has 30 days after this notice is given or mailed to ask for a hearing, before property can be levied."

By the time this notice issues, the account has usually run the full balance-due sequence — CP14, then reminders, then CP504 — without payment, an installment agreement, Currently Not Collectible status, or a formal dispute in place. A Revenue Officer-issued Letter 1058 often skips part of that stream, because a human has taken the case and is working it directly rather than waiting on the notice cycle.

Response deadline and what happens if you miss it

You have 30 days from the date of the notice to file Form 12153 and request a Collection Due Process hearing. That single filing does a great deal of work. It suspends levy action while the hearing is pending, it routes the case to IRS Appeals, and it preserves judicial review — IRC §6330(d) gives the taxpayer 30 days from the resulting determination to petition the Tax Court, and the Tax Court has jurisdiction over that petition.

Missing the 30 days does not end everything, but it downgrades the client's position substantially. A late request generally converts to an Equivalent Hearing, which gets the case in front of Appeals but does not suspend levy by operation of law and does not carry the right to Tax Court review of the determination. The difference between a timely Form 12153 and a late one is the difference between a protected negotiation and an unprotected one.

After the window closes with no request, the IRS may levy. Wages, bank accounts, receivables, and other property are all in scope, and the IRS owes no further notice before it happens. The IRS may also certify the account as seriously delinquent under the FAST Act, which can result in denial or revocation of a passport.

One qualification matters for accuracy: the 30-day pre-levy notice is not universal. IRM 5.11.1.3.2, Required Notices, identifies exceptions where the IRS may levy without it — jeopardy situations, state tax refund levies, disqualified employment tax levies, and federal contractor levies. Those are narrow, and none of them describe an ordinary individual balance-due case, but a practitioner who states the 30-day rule as absolute will eventually meet the case that disproves it.

The practitioner's actual next step

File Form 12153 first and analyze second. The request costs almost nothing, it stops the levy clock, and it buys the weeks you need to build the actual case. Practitioners who research thoroughly before filing routinely discover that the research consumed the window. Reverse the order.

The hearing itself is where the case actually resolves, so bring a specific proposal rather than an objection. Appeals will consider collection alternatives, so size yours before you walk in: run the numbers with The Federal Tax Desk's IA Payment Calculator for an installment agreement, or the OIC Qualifier if the client's equity and future income suggest an offer in compromise is realistic. Showing up with "we'd like something other than a levy" wastes the hearing; showing up with a documented monthly figure does not.

Two further checks belong in the same pass. Pull the account transcript to confirm which periods the notice actually covers, because a CDP request protects only the periods listed on it and a client with five delinquent years may be receiving notices on three. And calculate the collection statute expiration date before the hearing — a balance with eighteen months of statute left and a balance with seven years left justify entirely different postures, and a CDP request itself tolls the statute while it is pending.

What LT11, Letter 1058, and CP90 get confused with — and why the distinction matters

The most common and most damaging confusion is with CP504, which is widely and wrongly described as the final notice before levy. CP504 satisfies the §6331(d) notice requirement, but the only levy it actually clears the way for is against a state tax refund, through the State Income Tax Levy Program. It carries no Collection Due Process rights. This notice carries all of them. A client who responded carefully to CP504 and then ignored what followed has not protected themselves at all — they let the appeal rights lapse and left the wage and bank levy fully authorized.

The mirror-image error is just as expensive. A practitioner who believes CP504 already exhausted the client's CDP rights will not file Form 12153 when this notice arrives, because they think the window closed months ago. It did not. The rights attach here and nowhere earlier.

Finally, distinguish this notice from a Notice of Federal Tax Lien filing and its own appeal notice. A lien secures the government's claim against property the taxpayer already owns; a levy takes property. They generate separate notices with separate appeal deadlines, and a client can face both at once on the same balance. Answering one does nothing about the other.