Letter 86C: Your correspondence was transferred to another IRS office

What Letter 86C is

The interim letter used when Accounts Management transfers a case to another office outside its directorate. AM tells the taxpayer "an additional 60 days is needed," and the receiving office owns the final reply (IRM 21.3.3.4.2.1, Nov. 22, 2022). For payers the common trigger is a civil-penalty abatement request: "Penalty Abatement requests such as Civil Penalties ... will be routed to the appropriate area that assessed the penalty" under the 500- or 600-series penalty reference numbers (IRM 21.3.3.4.8.2.1(5), Apr. 1, 2026), so a 972CG or IRC 6721 request that reached AM is forwarded rather than worked there.

The deadline

No action required. Allow 60 additional days for the office named in the letter.

What to do

Note the receiving office; further correspondence on the matter should go there, and future calls should reference the transfer. An 86C is not a denial and not a decision. Interest cannot be removed on reasonable-cause grounds whatever the receiving office decides about the penalty (IRM 21.3.3.4.2.2.1(5), Oct. 1, 2025). If the matter is a penalty reconsideration, the 854C guide covers what the assessing function does next.

Why your letter was moved

Accounts Management answers most taxpayer correspondence, but it does not own every decision. A request to remove a penalty is decided by the function that assessed the penalty, and information-return penalties under IRC 6721 and 6722, Form 945 deposit penalties and the other civil penalties identified by a penalty reference number are assessed by campus units outside Accounts Management. When a letter about one of those reaches an AM site, the site forwards it rather than working it, and sends you Letter 86C to say so. The same happens when a letter arrives at a campus that does not handle your type of account, or raises a matter (an identity-theft claim, an Appeals request) that belongs to a specialist function. The 86C tells you the transfer happened and that the receiving office now has 60 days; it does not name an outcome because no one has looked at the merits yet.

What to do with it

Note the receiving office named in the letter and send anything further about the matter there, quoting the transfer; a follow-up mailed to the original address will be transferred again and lose another cycle. Add 60 days from the 86C date to your expected-reply calendar, and treat the 2645C and 2644C rules as restarting from the receiving office. If the matter is a penalty you have already paid and want refunded, the request should be a claim on Form 843 rather than a letter, because a claim starts the clock on the right to sue if it is not acted on. One point the transfer never changes: interest on an unpaid balance cannot be removed on reasonable-cause grounds, whatever the receiving office decides about the penalty; interest comes off only if the penalty it accrued on is removed. The after-the-denial guide covers what the assessing function does once it has the case, and the PRN decoder identifies which unit that is from the penalty reference number on your notice.

Questions about Letter 86C

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