CP504 / CP504B: Final notice, intent to levy

What CP504 / CP504B is

A collection notice for an unpaid balance, including an assessed information-return penalty that was never paid or abated, or a Form 945 assessment from the backup withholding compliance check. On a business account it is the second and last notice before lien or levy: per IRM 4.19.26.14.3, "the first and final notices are the only notices issued."

The deadline

Pay, set up a payment plan, or resolve the underlying penalty before the date shown. This is late in the process; a reasonable-cause request is still possible but collection is now running in parallel.

What to do

Find the original 972CG and CP15/CP215, or the Letter 6112-A; if you have a reasonable-cause case or a TIN-on-file statement that was never made, make it now and ask for a collection hold while it is considered.

Where CP504 sits in the collection sequence

A business balance that goes unpaid produces a short, fixed series of notices. The first is the bill itself: a CP15 or CP215 for an assessed penalty, a CP161 or CP210 for a tax balance such as a Form 945 assessment. If nothing happens, the account moves to CP504 (CP504B on a business account), which the IRS titles a Notice of Intent to Levy. Its immediate legal effect is narrower than the title suggests: it authorizes the IRS to take a state tax refund and begins the search for assets, but a levy on a bank account or receivables requires one more letter, the LT11 or Letter 1058, which carries the right to a Collection Due Process hearing. CP504 is the warning that the letter is next, and on a business account it is the last warning the IRS is required to send before it.

It also marks a change in who you are dealing with. Up to this point the balance belongs to the campus that assessed it; after CP504 it can be assigned to Automated Collection or a revenue officer, and a reasonable-cause request mailed to the penalty unit no longer stops anything by itself.

The three things that stop it

Paying the balance ends it. A business that cannot pay in full can request an installment agreement, online for smaller balances or on Form 9465 or by phone for larger ones, and collection action pauses while a request is pending and while an agreement is in good standing. The third route is to attack the balance itself: if the penalty was assessed because a Notice 972CG went unanswered, or a Letter 6112-A was never disputed, a reasonable-cause or TIN-on-file statement can still be made now, and the request should say in its first paragraph that a CP504 has issued and ask for a collection hold while it is considered. Make that request to the unit that assessed the penalty, pay anything that is not in dispute, and keep the CP504 and the mailing proof together. If the LT11 arrives before the matter is resolved, the Collection Due Process request on Form 12153 must be filed within 30 days of that letter; it is the point in the process where an independent Appeals officer can consider the underlying penalty, and it should not be missed. The after-the-denial guide covers the reconsideration and appeal routes.

Questions about CP504 / CP504B

Have a different notice? The IRS notice decoder lists all 77 in the order they tend to arrive.