Balance due & the collection ladder
A collections outreach letter — in plain words, 'we have not heard from you.' An IRS collection unit is asking you to call about an unpaid balance before the account moves to stronger notices.
Don't sit on it
A collections outreach letter — in plain words, 'we have not heard from you.' An IRS collection unit is asking you to call about an unpaid balance before the account moves to stronger notices.
Why you got it: Your balance is unpaid and unresponsive in the IRS's records — no payment, no plan, no contact.
Not itself a levy notice, and it doesn't start a hearing clock. It is the knock on the door before the notices that do.
Your first move: Call the number on the letter, or answer with a concrete step: payment, a plan application, or a documented dispute. The call log itself becomes part of your record.
The clock on this letter: Respond by the date on the letter — sooner is better.
LT16 asks for contact by a printed date. No statutory clock runs, but accounts that stay silent move up the ladder.
Arrive with your number — what you can pay monthly — not just a story.
If the balance is wrong, the written dispute with documents creates the record.
Income and necessary expenses, organized — CNC is decided on paper.
Phone number printed on the letter; follow up anything agreed with a letter, sent certified.
Call only the number printed on the letter or from IRS.gov — never a number from a voicemail about an LT16.
The account proceeds toward intent-to-levy notices and a possible lien filing — the rungs where clocks and rights start to matter.
Where this sits on the ladder: CP504 → LT11 →
One payment. No subscription. Yours to keep — every notice, every letter, every script.