Free summary, then your call
IRS Collection Due Process Hearing Request
A Final Notice of Intent to Levy gives you 30 days to request a Collection Due Process hearing. A lien notice (Letter 3172) prints its own request deadline, set by the 5-business-day notification rule in the tax code. Miss the window and the IRS can proceed: a frozen bank account, a garnished paycheck, a lien on the record.
The hearing request itself is one form, Form 12153. It lists checkboxes for the issues you may raise: a payment plan, hardship status, an Offer in Compromise, or a challenge to the tax itself. The Appeals Officer will only consider the boxes you checked. Nothing on the form tells you which apply to you, and checking a collection alternative without the financial disclosure to back it up is the most common way these hearings fail.
The IRS Independent Office of Appeals receives on the order of 50,000 to 100,000 CDP hearing requests a year (IRS Data Book, FY2024). Form 12153 asks which issues you want to raise. It never explains which ones fit your situation.
- Free, no account, no card
- Your deadline and options in minutes
- Answers deleted after 90 days
This tool is software. It reads your answers, no one reviews them, and it generates and emails the document itself the moment payment completes.
Why the agency will not tell you what to do
The Appeals Officer who runs your hearing is independent of IRS Collections, and is barred from advising you on what to argue or how to present your finances. The Taxpayer Advocate Service takes hardship cases only. Tax attorneys and enrolled agents handle exactly this filing for $1,500 to $10,000. The rules they apply, the IRS Allowable Living Expense standards, are public arithmetic.
What the free summary tells you
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Your deadline, computed
The exact date your response window closes, counted from the date on your notice, and what happens if it has already passed.
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Your options under the published rules
Which paths the regulations actually give you, and which one your answers point to.
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The numbers the agency will use
Computed from the same published standards the agency applies, so you walk in knowing what they know.
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Sources
This tool provides general information based on published IRS rules and standards. Its citations and figures were checked against official sources using AI-assisted research, most recently on 2026-09-01; no licensed tax professional has reviewed this content. It is not legal or tax advice, and using it does not create a representation relationship. The National Standards figures and the OIC estimate are planning tools, not a filing computation. Verify current figures at irs.gov before submitting anything. For audit-related liability challenges or innocent spouse claims, consult a tax attorney or enrolled agent.