LT19 Notice: The IRS Is Trying to Collect an Unpaid Balance

What the LT19 notice says

The IRS page for this notice says: “We are trying to collect unpaid balances on your account.” It lists three ways to act: pay in full at IRS.gov/payments, mail full payment with the voucher on the letter, or set up a payment plan through the IRS’s Online Payment Agreement application.

The Internal Revenue Manual (IRM), the IRS’s staff rulebook, titles the LT19 “Pay Your Outstanding Balance.” It lists the LT19 among the letters the IRS’s Automated Collection System (ACS), its phone-based collection unit, sends to taxpayers and their authorized representatives. The IRM says the back of these letters lists each overdue period, the type of tax, the balance, the penalties and interest added, and the total due.

Where the LT19 fits among collection letters

The IRM describes one path to an LT19. ACS mails a reminder letter, the LT38, and waits for a reply. If none comes, the system sends “another ACS letter,” and the IRM names the LT19 and the LT16 as examples.

Treat the LT19 as a sign that your account now sits with ACS collection staff. Use the totals on the back of your letter as your starting point, and check them against your own records. The IRS page lists Notice 746, which explains the penalties and interest on a notice, and Publication 594, The IRS Collection Process.

Your hearing rights: check your other letters

The IRS page tells you to look at your notice for how to request a Collection Due Process (CDP) hearing, an independent review of a planned levy. The IRM’s pre-levy rules say the IRS must send a CDP notice before it levies, and its list of those notices includes the LT11, Letter 1058, CP90 and others. The LT19 is not on that list.

So look through your papers for an LT11 or Letter 1058. Our LT11 and Letter 1058 page explains that letter and the time it gives you to ask for a hearing. If that time already ran out, the IRM treats a levy as the next step ACS may take. If you have a representative on file, the IRM says ACS sends LT letters to authorized representatives too, so compare your copy with theirs.

If you cannot pay in full

The IRS page says you may qualify for an installment agreement, a monthly payment plan, if you cannot pay the full balance. The IRS page says you can view the plan options and their cost online. It also points to an offer in compromise, which settles the debt for less when you qualify, and to a temporary delay of collection when you cannot pay at all.

Our collection alternatives router compares those options side by side. If the debt causes an economic hardship, the IRS page lists the Taxpayer Advocate Service at 877-777-4778.

What people mistake the LT19 for

Some readers take the LT19 for a final notice before a levy. It is not one: the IRM does not list it among the notices that give the levy hearing right.

Others set it aside as routine mail. Answer it by the date on the notice, even if your answer is a request for a payment plan. That request needs no special letter; the IRS page points first to the online application.

Common Questions