What Letter 4280 is
The no-change closing letter for a Title 26 Form 8300 examination; the manual lists it as "Form 8300 No Issue" (IRM 4.26.11.7.1.1 table, Feb. 6, 2026; 4.26.11.11, May 29, 2019). Letter 5722 is the Title 31 equivalent. A no-issue closing does not mean the customer-statement check is over: in a Title 26 exam that check "will extend into" the following January (IRM 4.26.11.8.3.2(11), Aug. 4, 2021).
The deadline
No response required.
What to do
Keep the letter with the year's Forms 8300, which must be retained five years from filing (IRM 4.26.10.7.1(7)). If the examiner wrote a cash-handling policy for you because you had none, adopt it; the manual says adequate controls "could" shorten the testing period next time (IRM 4.26.11.10.5, 4.26.11.8.3.3(5)). Penalty cases, not no-issue cases, are the ones flagged for re-examination in one or two years (IRM 4.26.11.12.6).
What a no-change closing means
Letter 4280 closes a Title 26 Form 8300 examination with no penalty proposed: the examiner reconciled your filings to FinCEN's records and your bank's currency transaction reports, tested your cash receipts for the period, and found nothing to assess. It is the outcome most compliant businesses get and it is worth keeping, because a later examiner will see the prior closing on the file and because it documents that your cash-handling procedures were reviewed and passed. It is not a certificate that the year is closed in every respect. The customer-statement requirement (the written notice to each person named on a Form 8300, due January 31 of the following year) cannot be fully tested until that date passes, and the examination's coverage of it formally runs into the next January.
Housekeeping after the examination
File the letter with the Forms 8300 for the years examined; the forms themselves must be kept for five years from the filing date, with the customer statements and the records showing how each transaction was identified. If you had no written cash-handling policy and the examiner helped you draft one, adopt it formally and train the staff who take payments, because the IRS treats adequate controls as a reason to shorten the testing period in any future examination. Note the calendar for the customer statements for the year just examined, since that is the one part of compliance still open. Re-examinations within one or two years are scheduled for businesses that were penalized, not for no-change closings, so a 4280 is also the end of the matter for the foreseeable future unless your bank's currency reports change shape. The Form 8300 guide has a model policy and the statement wording.
Questions about Letter 4280
Who receives Letter 4280?
Business. The no-change closing letter for a Title 26 Form 8300 examination; the manual lists it as "Form 8300 No Issue" (IRM 4.26.11.7.1.1 table, Feb.
What is the deadline on Letter 4280?
No response required.
What should I do when Letter 4280 arrives?
Keep the letter with the year's Forms 8300, which must be retained five years from filing (IRM 4.26.10.7.1(7)). If the examiner wrote a cash-handling policy for you because you had none, adopt it; the manual says adequate controls "could" shorten the testing period next time (IRM 4.26.11.10.5, 4.26.11.8.3.3(5)). Penalty cases, not no-issue cases, are the ones flagged for re-examination in one or two years (IRM 4.26.11.12.6).
Is Letter 4280 about my own income tax?
No. This decoder covers information reporting and withholding: the notices a payer, filer or payee sees because of Forms 1099, W-2, 945 and the TINs on them. Individual income-tax notices follow a different track.
Have a different notice? The IRS notice decoder lists all 77 in the order they tend to arrive.