IRS Letter 3193 Explained: Notice of Determination and Your Right to Tax Court

If you’re holding IRS Letter 3193, you’ve already done something most business owners never do. You requested a Collection Due Process (CDP) hearing, and you made it through Appeals.

This letter is the result. Whether Appeals ruled for you or against you, it starts a short clock: 30 days to take your case to U.S. Tax Court. Miss it, and in most cases the IRS decision becomes final, and the levy protection you’ve been relying on goes away.

I’m a former IRS agent and current IRS defense attorney. Below I’ll explain what Letter 3193 means, how to tell whether you have a case worth taking to court, and exactly what to do next.

What Is IRS Letter 3193?

The full title generally reads: “Letter 3193, Notice of Determination Concerning Collection Action(s) under IRC Section 6320 and/or 6330.”

Those are sections of the Internal Revenue Code:

• Section 6320 covers federal tax liens.
• Section 6330 covers levies.

Letter 3193 is the IRS Independent Office of Appeals’ written decision on your CDP hearing, whether that hearing was based on a lien or a levy. It’s essentially the end of the administrative appeal road.

How You Got Here

What Did Appeals Actually Decide?

By law, Appeals has to do three things in a CDP hearing:

1. Verify the IRS followed the law and its own procedures. For example, that the tax was properly assessed, the notices were properly sent, and the right steps were taken before the IRS filed a lien or attempted a levy.
2. Consider the issues you raised. These include collection alternatives like an installment agreement, offer in compromise, currently not collectible status, lien withdrawal, or subordination, and in some cases a challenge to the underlying tax itself.
3. Apply the balancing test. That means weighing whether the proposed collection action balances the government’s need to collect against your legitimate concern that it be no more intrusive than necessary.

Letter 3193 tells you how Appeals decided each of these. It may sustain the lien or levy in full, partially sustain it, or reflect a resolution you negotiated.

Read the Attachment, Not Just the Letter

The letter itself is mostly boilerplate. The real substance is in the attachment, which explains what Appeals did and why.

Read it carefully, because it tells you exactly what Appeals thought was missing. Very often I see sentences like:

• “The taxpayer did not provide the requested financial information.”
• “The taxpayer was not in filing compliance,” meaning you have unfiled returns.

Sentences like those tell you whether you have a case worth taking to court.

The 30-Day Tax Court Deadline

If you disagree with Appeals’ determination, you have only 30 days from the date on the letter to file a petition with U.S. Tax Court. That’s not 90 days like a typical Notice of Deficiency. It’s 30, and it runs from the date on the letter.

Why This Matters for Business Owners

If you owe six figures to the IRS, consider what’s been protecting you. When you file a timely CDP request based on a levy notice, levy action is generally suspended while the hearing is pending. That suspension also continues while a timely Tax Court petition is pending.

Often, that suspension is the only thing standing between your business and a levy on its bank accounts or receivables.

If the 30 days pass without a petition, the determination becomes final and the suspension ends. If Appeals sustained the levy, the Revenue Officer is free to proceed with collection. And you don’t get a second CDP hearing on the same tax or period just because you’d like another try. Your road in Appeals is over.

Should You File a Tax Court Petition?

Not necessarily. Not every case should go to Tax Court. Ask yourself three questions.

1. Did Appeals Make a Real Error?

In most collection cases, Tax Court reviews Appeals’ decision for abuse of discretion. The Court isn’t asking, “Would we have decided differently?” It’s asking whether Appeals’ decision was arbitrary, unreasonable, or without a sound basis. That’s a very deferential standard toward the IRS.

You can win if Appeals ignored real evidence you gave them, misapplied the rules, skipped a required verification, or refused an alternative without a legitimate reason.

2. What’s in the Record?

This one often catches business owners off guard. In many cases, the Court’s review is largely limited to what was in front of Appeals, the administrative record.

If you didn’t submit financial statements, weren’t current on your filings, or never actually proposed a collection alternative, the Court generally won’t fix that for you. You can’t raise new issues in Tax Court that you didn’t raise at the Appeals hearing.

3. Can You Challenge the Tax Itself?

Generally, only in limited situations. If you already received a Notice of Deficiency or otherwise had a prior opportunity to dispute the liability, you generally can’t use a CDP hearing to reargue the tax. But if you never had that opportunity, the Court can review the liability fresh.

Your Letter 3193 Playbook

If you’re holding Letter 3193, here’s what to do, in order.

The Bottom Line on IRS Letter 3193

Letter 3193 is your last door to an independent judge before the IRS’s collection decision becomes final, and that door is only open for 30 days. For a business owner, it can be the difference between a negotiated resolution and a levy on your accounts.

Don’t put this letter in a drawer, and don’t spend weeks thinking about it. Start acting today, and decide whether the determination is worth taking to Tax Court.