IRS Denied Your EITC or Child Tax Credit? How to Answer the Notice

Your deadline runs from the notice date printed at the top: 60 days to undo a math-error change (CP11, CP12 or CP13) by asking, 30 days to answer a CP2000 or a CP75 audit of your Earned Income Tax Credit, and 90 days to reach Tax Court after a notice of deficiency. The IRS reverses most math-error changes when you ask in time; EITC audits turn on proof the child lived with you and is related to you. Today, find the notice number (top right corner) and mark its response date.

Match the notice to its rule

CP11, CP12 or CP13: a math-error change

The "What we changed on your return" section names the reason. Credit triggers include a missing or mismatched Social Security number, a missing Form 8862, and entries that contradict each other.

Contact the IRS in writing within 60 days of the notice date and it reverses the change, with no explanation or documents required. If it still doubts the credit, audit staff contact you within 6 weeks, and the audit route keeps your appeal and Tax Court rights. For math-error notices sent after November 25, 2026, federal law requires the 60-day date in bold beside your address and the exact return line and code section changed.

CP2000: a proposal built from income reports

A CP2000 comes months after filing, from the IRS matching payers' W-2s and 1099s to your return. It proposes new income, tax and credits, so an unreported 1099 can cut or erase an EITC. Answer within 30 days of the notice date, or 60 days if you live outside the United States: mark agree or disagree on the response form. To agree, sign it (both spouses on a joint return); to disagree, attach a signed statement and documents for each item you dispute.

CP75 or CP75A: an audit of your EITC

A CP75 means the IRS is auditing your EITC and holding that part of your refund, plus any Additional Child Tax Credit; a CP75A also audits dependents and filing status. Send the requested documents with the response form within 30 days of the notice date, or the IRS disallows the audited items and mails an audit report (Form 4549). Your packet's document list is Form 886-H-EIC (Form 14820 from its October 2026 revision). For each child, prove:

• Residency. Send school, medical or childcare records, or dated letterhead statements from a school, doctor, childcare provider, landlord or social service agency, showing your name, the child's name and the same U.S. address for more than half the year.
• Relationship. For your own son or daughter, including an adopted child, send nothing unless your name is missing from the birth certificate (send adoption records, a court decree or paternity test results) or the child was born abroad (send its birth certificate or immigration papers, in English or legally translated). For a grandchild, niece, nephew, sibling or stepchild, send the birth certificates or other legal papers that link you.
• Age, for a child 19 or older. For a child 19 to 23, send school records showing full-time study in any five months of the year; for a permanently and totally disabled child, a doctor's or agency letter.

Statements signed by a relative are refused, and every document must cover the audited year. The IRS EITC letter and audit page has letterhead templates for schools, doctors and childcare providers.

Notice of deficiency: the Tax Court deadline

A statutory notice of deficiency comes by certified mail when a CP2000 or an audit report goes unanswered or unresolved (CP3219A after a CP2000). You have 90 days from its mailing to petition the U.S. Tax Court, or 150 days if it is addressed to you outside the United States, and a petition filed by the last date printed on it is on time. The IRS keeps working with you meanwhile but cannot extend that window. With no settlement and no petition, the tax is assessed and billed.

CP79, CP79A or CP79B: the effect on next year

A CP79 means you attach Form 8862 the next time you claim the EITC, Child Tax Credit, Additional Child Tax Credit, Credit for Other Dependents or American Opportunity Tax Credit. A CP79A bars those credits for 2 years for reckless or intentional disregard of the rules; a CP79B bars them for 10 years for fraud. Skip Form 8862 after a math-error cut, once a later Form 8862 was accepted and the credit stayed allowed, or for the EITC with no qualifying child when the denial was only about the child. A denial without reasonable cause can also bring a penalty of 20% of the excess claimed.

What to do today

1. Compare each change with your return for that year. Lost your copy? Your IRS Online Account has transcripts.
2. Accept only what is right. On a CP2000, dispute only the wrong items. Sign an audit report's agreement page only if you accept every change; if you dispute any change or plan to appeal, leave it unsigned and send documents and an explanation. Can't pay the balance at once? Use our IRS payment plan guide.
3. Collect the proof: the three items above for an audit; for a CP2000, a corrected W-2 or 1099 or records showing the income is someone else's.
4. Send copies, never originals, by a route the notice lists: the Exam Document Upload Tool for a CP75, the IRS Document Upload Tool for a CP2000, the fax number on the notice, or the address on page 1.
5. Keep proof you answered: the upload confirmation, fax confirmation sheet or USPS certified mail receipt, plus copies of everything.
6. Short on time? Call the number on the notice before the date. You can request a CP2000 extension by phone, mail or fax.

Where it splits

If a Social Security number is missing or wrong, answer a typo with the right number; for a name mismatch, have the Social Security Administration fix its records first. The Child Tax Credit needs a work-valid SSN for the child and, starting with 2025 returns, for you or at least one spouse on a joint return; a child with an ITIN gets no CTC or ACTC (see our Child Tax Credit guide).

If Form 8862 was missing, answer with a completed Form 8862.

If you missed the date, answer anyway. On a math-error notice, the IRS still weighs late documents; you lose only the formal right to the reversal and to Tax Court. After an audit or CP2000 assessment, request audit reconsideration while the tax is unpaid or the credit stays reversed: send new documents, with a letter or Form 12661, to the campus on your audit report or the top-left address on the CP2000. Paid in full already? File Form 1040-X.

If the child truly fails a test, agree to that part and check the no-child EITC in our EITC eligibility guide. California's credit is in our CalEITC guide.

Your leverage

• Independent Office of Appeals. Before an audit report's deadline, request Appeals in writing: Form 12203 or a short statement for $25,000 or less per tax year, a formal protest under Publication 5 above that. Appeals is independent of the auditors, and most disputes settle there.
• U.S. Tax Court. You go before paying. The filing fee is $60 and can be waived. Disputes of $50,000 or less per year, penalties included, can use the small tax case procedure, whose decision is final. E-file in DAWSON.
• Taxpayer Advocate Service. This free, independent office inside the IRS can take cases where the problem threatens your housing, food or utilities, or the IRS is over 30 days past normal processing time. Call 877-777-4778 or email Form 911 to TAS.Form.911.Request.for.Assistance@irs.gov.
• Low Income Taxpayer Clinics. At or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines, a clinic can represent you in audits, appeals and Tax Court for free or a small fee. Use the LITC clinic finder.
• A ban. Request reconsideration with proof you qualified in the year of the ban, or that the claim was neither reckless nor fraudulent. To reach Tax Court, mail a return for a later ban year you would otherwise qualify in, with Form 8862 attached (the IRS rejects an e-filed one).

Bring in a clinic or tax attorney for a CP79A or CP79B, a proposed excess-claim penalty, or a Tax Court petition.

Cover letter for your reply

[Your name], SSN ending [last four digits], [address], [phone]. Re: Notice [number], tax year [year], notice date [date].

For a CP75 audit: I disagree with the change to my [Earned Income Tax Credit / Child Tax Credit]. [Child's name] is my [relationship] and lived with me at [address] from [month] to [month] [year]. Enclosed: [school records dated ...], [letter on letterhead from ...].

For a CP2000: The Form [1099/W-2] from [payer] for $[amount] is [not mine / wrong]. Enclosed: [corrected form / payer's statement].

For a CP11, CP12 or CP13: I request abatement of the change in this notice under Internal Revenue Code section 6213(b)(2). Any reassessment must go through deficiency procedures.

[Signature] [Date]

Today

1. Find the notice number and date; mark the deadline.
2. Gather the copies that answer it.
3. Upload, fax or certified-mail the reply and save the confirmation.

Allow at least 30 days for any IRS reply. Audit documents that support your return bring a closing letter and the held refund within 6 to 8 weeks if you owe nothing else. A disputed CP2000 brings a letter accepting your return, a revised notice for the unresolved items, or a notice saying why the IRS rejected what you sent.