I missed the 30-day deadline on my levy notice. Have I lost my rights?

The hearing itself is not gone. Publication 1660 states that if your Collection Due Process request is not timely, you may request an equivalent hearing — on the same form, from the same office. You check the Equivalent Hearing box on line 7 of Form 12153.

The window is long. The IRS states the request must be postmarked on or before the end of the one-year period after the date of the levy notice, or the one-year period plus 5 business days after the filing date of a Notice of Federal Tax Lien.

What is lost is what the hearing does. Publication 1660 states that where the CDP request is untimely and an equivalent hearing is requested, "the law does not prohibit levy and the collection statute is not suspended." And no Tax Court route follows from an equivalent hearing determination.

IRM 5.1.19 says the same thing from the other direction: "The collection statute is not extended for equivalency hearings."

So three things go — the levy prohibition, the pause on the IRS's time to collect, and the court — and the hearing remains. Check the date printed on your notice before assuming which one you are in: Publication 1660 states the lien notice indicates the date the 30-day period expires, and the printed date governs.

The records this answer comes from

This page exists because no single one of those answers the question on its own. The answer is a comparison between two things that use the same form, and the consequences live in a publication rather than on any notice page.

Sources

• Publication 1660, Collection Appeal Rights — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-21
• Form 12153, Request for a Collection Due Process or Equivalent Hearing — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-21
• IRM 5.1.19, Collection Statute Expiration — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-21

Sourced to primary IRS materials and editorially reviewed. Not reviewed by a tax professional. Not tax advice.