01A CP3219A — the statutory notice of deficiency — states the tax the IRS intends to assess and starts the one deadline in this series that no one can move.02You have 90 days from the notice date (150 if it is addressed to you outside the US) to petition the United States Tax Court.03Petition in time and nothing is assessed until the case resolves, without paying first. Miss it and the tax is assessed; disputing then generally means paying first and suing for a refund.
Why this deadline is different
Every earlier deadline in this series — CP2501, CP2000 — was administrative: extensions could be requested, late responses could still help. The 90-day period is jurisdictional. It is set by statute, the IRS cannot extend it, and the Tax Court cannot hear a petition filed on day 91. The letter states the last day to file; that date, not your arithmetic, controls.
Everything else on this site is about persuading the IRS. This letter is about preserving your right to have a judge decide instead — and that right expires on a printed date.
How crypto cases arrive here
Usually by silence: a CP2000 generated from a basis-blind 1099-DA went unanswered, the proposed number — often taxing gross proceeds as pure gain — hardened into this notice. The deficiency figure can therefore be dramatically wrong and still become a legal assessment if the deadline passes. Wrongness does not stop the clock; only a petition does, or a resolution the IRS itself signs before the deadline.
What to do immediately
- Find the last-day-to-petition date on the notice and treat it as immovable. Calendar it, then calendar a working deadline two weeks earlier.
- Decide the forum with counsel, this week. Tax Court (no prepayment) is the usual choice; district court or the Court of Federal Claims exist but require paying first. This is a lawyer's decision, made with the reconciliation numbers in hand.
- Keep talking to the IRS — without letting talk eat the clock. A corrected 8949 with proof can still resolve the matter before assessment. But no discussion, however promising, extends the 90 days. File the petition anyway if resolution is not signed before your working deadline.
- Assemble the basis file now. Whether the endgame is settlement or trial, the case is the same reconciliation: lot by lot, record by record.
If the deadline has already passed
Options narrow but do not vanish: audit reconsideration, offer procedures, and refund litigation after payment all exist, each with its own rules. What no longer exists is the prepayment-free courtroom. If you are inside the window as you read this, the single most valuable thing you own is the unexpired deadline.
If you have received this notice, a statutory deadline is running that cannot be extended. This page explains the notice; it does not respond to it, and reading it creates no professional relationship.