Notice LT11 acts as Letter 1058 Final Notice of Intent to Levy, and it looks remarkably similar to a CP501, CP503 or CP504. We've seen that the IRS Automated Collection Systems (ACS) has stopped using Letter 1058-C "Final Notice of Intent to Levy," and instead, is using Notice LT11 (Note: Revenue Officers are still using Letter 1058). This is a rather important change as the Final Notice of Intent to Levy is what every tax dispute practitioner is on the look out for so as to file a Collection Due Process or Equivalency Hearing.
The new IRS Notice LT11 looks fairly innocuous in relation to other notices. The LT11 looks more like a CP501, CP503, or a CP504 "Notice of Intent to Levy." As you may know, a CP501, CP503, or CP504 does not trigger appeal rights. Failing to respond to a CP504 will not result in a levy aside from intercepted refunds and other very limited payment sources.
The not-so obvious answer is "B." The top "A" is from a CP504. the lower "B" is from a LT11.
Where did the LT11 come from?
The IRS claims that the LT11 has been around for a while. Maybe this form has existed since 2009, but something seems off. We have helped thousands of US taxpayers with their tax problems and we have never seen one Notice LT11 until this week. Perhaps, not-so-coincidentally, the web page explaining what the the LT11 is was last updated February 15, 2015. I tried looking this page up in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to see if this page existed prior to February 15, 2015, but the page was not previously indexed. Imagine that. Every tax attorney here subscribes to every IRS news feed imaginable, yet this is the first we are learning of the change.
And wouldn't you know it — the first Notice LT11 we received was for a client of ours currently in the Opt-out portion of the 2011 OVDI. Further, as we looked at her just downloaded Account Transcripts, nothing on it indicates that she was issued any LT11 or notified of any appeal rights.
So to summarize for you, our fellow IRS fighters:
- The IRS switched, without any notice to professionals, that ACS would stop using Letter 1058-C;
- ACS is now using Notice LT11, which is mighty misleading and does not meaningfully inform one of the right to appeal;
- The IRS does not indicate in the Account History that such a Notice of Right to Appeal has been issued.
Until then — be on your toes. The IRS is shifting its practices and not informing taxpayers and tax practitioners of rather important changes it feels like making.
