What the IRS says: “Your refund is being held because IRS records show a prior-year return is delinquent, and it may be applied to any balance that year produces.” Here’s what it actually means, your deadline, and exactly how to respond.
Sibling of CP63 with sharper language: the IRS suspects the unfiled year will produce a balance and is keeping your refund as security. Same resolution: file or explain, and respond via the enclosed form/letter channel.
Notice family: Refund Holds & Unfiled Returns — Your refund is frozen or the IRS has no return on file for a year it expected one. These resolve by filing, verifying, or sending exactly the documents requested — silence makes them worse.
File the delinquent return or prove it was filed/not required
Compute whether the missing year nets a balance — the refund offsets it
Respond with the explanation form the notice includes
Track both years until the freeze lifts
The named year's resolution is the response; a cover letter connecting it to the CP88 keeps the freeze from outliving the fix.
Describe the notice and your side of it — use placeholders, never your SSN or account numbers (the letter keeps [YOUR NAME]-style fields so you fill in the real details privately before mailing). A mail-ready draft with an enclosure checklist comes back in ~20 seconds.
Your IRS response letter draft will appear here.
Your refund is being held because IRS records show a prior-year return is delinquent, and it may be applied to any balance that year produces. In practice: Sibling of CP63 with sharper language: the IRS suspects the unfiled year will produce a balance and is keeping your refund as security. Same resolution: file or explain, and respond via the enclosed form/letter channel.
There is no fixed response deadline on this notice, but acting promptly keeps your options open. The respond-by date printed on your own notice always controls.
The named year's resolution is the response; a cover letter connecting it to the CP88 keeps the freeze from outliving the fix.