Identity, refunds & unfiled returns
The IRS is holding a refund from a year you DID file because it shows earlier returns you did NOT file. File the missing years, and the hold can release.
Don't sit on it
The IRS is holding a refund from a year you DID file because it shows earlier returns you did NOT file. File the missing years, and the hold can release.
Why you got it: Your account shows unfiled prior-year returns; IRS policy holds refunds until a taxpayer is current on filing.
Not a seizure: the money isn't gone, it's gated. But the gate has a trap — if a missing year's refund-limitations clock (3 years) runs out while you stall, money can be lost by calendar, not by decision.
Your first move: List the missing years from the notice, prepare those returns (oldest first if refunds there are near their 3-year limit too), and file them.
The clock on this letter: Respond by the date on the notice — and mind the 3-year refund clocks.
The notice sets its response date. Separately, refunds for any year are generally forfeited 3 years after that year's filing deadline (26 U.S.C. 6511) — the reason missing years get filed promptly, not eventually.
Transcripts (wage & income) rebuild most of what you need if your records are gone.
In writing, year by year, with income figures.
File the returns as the notice directs; keep e-file acceptances / certified-mail receipts per year.
Your held refund cannot be 'released for a fee' by anyone but the process above.
The refund stays held; missing years drift toward substitute-for-return treatment; and any refund attached to an old year can expire by its 3-year date.
Where this sits on the ladder: CP59 → CP518 →
One payment. No subscription. Yours to keep — every notice, every letter, every script.