Equivalent Hearing
What you get if the CDP request was late. It gives you a hearing and takes away three things the CDP hearing has.
Full Definition
An equivalent hearing is the hearing available when a Collection Due Process request was not made in time.
Publication 1660 states the deadline: "To receive an equivalent hearing, your request must be postmarked on or before the end of the one-year period after the date of the levy notice or on or before the end of the one-year period plus 5 business days after the filing date of the Notice of Federal Tax Lien."
You ask for it on the same form. The IRS states to check the Equivalent Hearing box on line 7 of Form 12153, or, if you are not using the form, to write that you want an equivalent hearing if the CDP request is late.
What it costs is the part to read twice. Publication 1660 states that where a CDP request is not timely and you request an equivalent hearing: "the law does not prohibit levy and the collection statute is not suspended." And separately, on judicial review, an equivalent hearing determination does not carry the Tax Court route a CDP determination does.
So three things go: the levy prohibition, the suspension of the collection statute, and the court. The hearing itself remains.
IRM 5.1.19 corroborates the middle one from the other direction: "The collection statute is not extended for equivalency hearings."
What to do next
Check the date on the lien or levy notice against the CDP deadline before assuming the equivalent hearing is what you need. If the CDP window is still open, it is the one to use — it stops levy, suspends the collection statute, and preserves the Tax Court route.
Sources
- Publication 1660, Collection Appeal Rights — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-18
- Form 12153, Request for a Collection Due Process or Equivalent Hearing — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-21
- Equivalent Hearing (Within 1 Year) — Taxpayer Advocate Service, retrieved 2026-08-20
Last reviewed 2026-08-21 by Tax Resolution Clarity editorial.
Sourced to primary IRS materials and editorially reviewed. Not reviewed by a tax professional. Not tax advice.
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Where to go next
The IRS publishes the rules this page describes. Your own notice governs your dates.