Tax Relief Services

IRS LT11 and Letter 1058: The Final Notice Before a Levy, and the Letter With Hearing Rights

Updated September 6, 2026

By Angeline Balsitis, EA · Reviewed by Melissa Ly, Chief Tax Officer

The LT11, and its twin Letter 1058, is the letter the whole collection sequence has been building toward. The IRS says in its first two sentences that it intends to seize your property and that you must contact it immediately. It is also the one letter that hands you a formal right to a hearing, and that right is the most valuable thing on the page.

What the LT11 and Letter 1058 are

They are the same notice in two forms, and the IRS documents them on one page. Its description is short: the IRS has not received your payment for overdue taxes, it intends to seize your property or rights to property, and you must contact it immediately. There is no softer reading of that. It is the final notice of intent to levy, and the IRS's page for it is Understanding your LT11 notice or Letter 1058.

If you have reached this letter, you have almost certainly passed a CP14 and a CP504 on the way. Each of those said the balance was growing. This one says what happens to it next, and it is the first letter in the sequence where the IRS's power to levy wages and bank accounts is real rather than described.

What the IRS can do after this letter

The IRS answers this on the same page. If you do not respond to the notice or do not pay, it can attach a levy to your wages or bank accounts up to the amount owed. It may also file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien, which it describes as a public notice to your creditors that the government has a right to your interests in your current assets and any assets you acquire after the filing, and which can affect your ability to get credit.

Asked what kinds of property it can levy, the IRS lists wages and other income, bank accounts, business assets, personal assets including your car and home, Alaska Permanent Fund Dividends, state tax refunds, and Social Security benefits. That is the IRS's list, not ours, and it is worth reading twice because it is broader than most people assume. A levy on wages continues until the balance is paid or the levy is released, which is why a wage levy is the one that changes a household budget overnight. Our wage garnishment release and bank levy release pages cover what happens once one has actually issued.

The passport warning from the CP504 is repeated here. The IRS says you may be subject to the FAST Act, which generally prohibits the State Department from issuing or renewing a passport to a taxpayer with seriously delinquent tax debt.

The hearing right, and why it is the most important thing on the page

Under the heading of what you may want to do, the IRS says you may request an appeal of the proposed levy action by following the instructions on the letter, and it points to its Collection Due Process FAQ page. Asked whether you can appeal the balance due, it says you may request a collection due process hearing and to see the notice or letter for directions. The publications it lists include Publication 1660, Collection Appeal Rights, and Form 12153, Request for a Collection Due Process or Equivalent Hearing.

This matters because a Collection Due Process hearing is a formal proceeding before the IRS Independent Office of Appeals, and a timely request generally holds the levy while the hearing is pending. The IRS's own Collection Due Process FAQ states the window plainly: you have 30 days from receipt of an LT11 or Letter 1058 to request a Collection Due Process hearing, using Form 12153. Read the letter for the exact date, because the count runs from receipt. Miss it and the IRS still describes an equivalent hearing, but that is a different and weaker thing. We cover the process on our Collection Due Process hearing page, and the appeal mechanics on our LT11 guide.

We say this to every client at this stage: whatever else you do, do not let the hearing date pass while you think about it. Requesting the hearing does not commit you to anything except being heard.

What the IRS asks you to do

• Pay the unpaid balance. The IRS says that when you pay in full it stops adding interest and applicable penalties, that you can pay online, and that your Online Account shows the balance. If you cannot pay in full, it says to pay what you can now, because payments reduce the interest and penalties added to the remainder.
• Request an installment agreement if you are current on your filings. The IRS notes that if you owe $50,000 or less you may be able to set one up through its Online Payment Agreement tool, which it calls the fastest way to get an agreement approved. Otherwise, call the number on the letter or mail the request form.
• If you already paid, send proof. The IRS says to send proof of payment to the address at the top of the letter if you paid in full or believe a payment was not credited.
• If you cannot pay, call the number on the letter.
• Consider the appeal. Follow the letter's instructions to request a Collection Due Process hearing.

Being current on filings is doing a lot of work in that second item. An installment agreement on an account with unfiled years is not something the IRS will set up. If returns are missing, that comes first; our unfiled tax returns page explains why and how.

Your realistic options

• Pay in full. Stops interest and penalties being added and ends the levy risk.
• Request the hearing and use the time. A timely Collection Due Process request is where a resolution gets negotiated with a levy held off. The alternatives below can all be raised inside it.
• An installment agreement. See our IRS payment plans page. It has to be one you can keep, because a default returns you to this exact letter.
• Hardship status. If you cannot pay, the account can be placed in a temporary delay of collection. Our currently not collectible page explains what the IRS needs to see.
• An Offer in Compromise. A request to settle for less based on what the IRS can collect. Our Offer in Compromise page is direct about who it fits.

What Clarity does with an LT11

Two things happen on the first day. We calendar the hearing date on the letter, and we pull the account transcript. The date is the thing that cannot be recovered if it passes; the transcript is the thing that tells us whether the balance is right and how the sequence got here. On more than one occasion the transcript has shown that a levy was already in process on a balance that included a penalty the IRS's own rules allowed to be removed. That is found in the transcript and nowhere on the letter.

• We preserve the hearing right. Filed in time, correctly, with the issues we intend to raise.
• We verify the balance and identify removable penalties, per our penalty abatement page.
• We put the resolution in front of Appeals. Plan, hardship, or offer, whichever the facts support, with the documentation to carry it.
• We take the contact. With a power of attorney filed, the IRS deals with us, and a levy that has already issued becomes a release request rather than a surprise.

The investigation fee is $495 for an individual and $695 for a business. It covers the transcript pull, the balance review and a written plan, and it comes with a 15-day money-back policy from the date you sign. You have the written agreement before anything is charged.

The hard part, stated plainly

The hard part is the calendar. Everything on this page depends on a date printed on a letter that most people receive with dread and read once. Once that date passes, the levy can issue, the hearing right converts to something weaker, and the negotiation happens with money already gone rather than money at risk. We cannot get the date back for anyone, and no firm can. That is why the first thing we do is write it down.

The second hard part is that an LT11 often arrives on top of other problems: unfiled years, a business balance, a lien already recorded. Each of those is its own workstream, and pretending one letter resolves all of them is how people end up back here in a year.

When you do not need anyone

If the balance is right, you can pay it or set up the online plan today, and you are current on your filings, do that and keep the confirmation. The IRS's own tool handles an agreement of $50,000 or less without a professional. If you already paid, the fix is proof of payment to the address on the letter, not a hired firm.

Where a review is worth it: the balance is large relative to what you can pay, the figure looks wrong, returns are unfiled, a business is involved, a lien is on record, a levy has already issued, or you are inside the hearing window and unsure what to ask for. Those are the situations where the transcript and the appeal change the outcome available to you.

LT11 and Letter 1058 Questions, Answered

Results vary based on individual facts and circumstances. Not every taxpayer qualifies for a payment plan, hardship status, penalty relief or an Offer in Compromise, and no specific outcome is guaranteed. This page is general information about the IRS LT11 and Letter 1058, not tax or legal advice.

Related Services: Collection Due Process Hearing · CP504 Notice · Wage Garnishment Release · Bank Levy Release · or return to All Tax Relief Services.

“We haven't received your payment for overdue taxes. We intend to seize your property or rights to property. You must contact us immediately.”

— IRS, Understanding your LT11 notice or Letter 1058

The passage quoted above is from IRS, Understanding your LT11 notice or Letter 1058.