Collection Due Process Hearings and the CSED: Counting Suspension Days

The Collection Due Process hearing is one of the strongest procedural rights a taxpayer has. Filed on time, it puts levy on hold and gets you in front of the IRS Independent Office of Appeals. The cost is time on the collection statute. Usually it is a fair trade. Occasionally it is not, and the calendar tells you which.

The statute

IRC 6330(e)(1) says that if a hearing is requested under subsection (a)(3)(B), the levy actions that are the subject of the hearing and the running of the period of limitations under IRC 6502 are suspended for the period during which the hearing, and appeals therein, are pending. It adds a floor: in no event shall the period expire before the 90th day after the day on which there is a final determination in the hearing.

Lien hearings under IRC 6320 work the same way; IRC 6320(c) applies the 6330(e) suspension rules to them.

When the suspension starts and stops

IRM 5.1.19.3.3 sets the dates: the CSED is suspended from the date the IRS receives a timely filed request for a CDP hearing until the taxpayer withdraws the request or the Appeals determination becomes final, including any court appeals.

• Timely means within the 30-day period described in the notice; IRC 6330(a)(2) and (a)(3)(B) build that window.
• Court appeals count. IRC 6330(d)(1) allows a Tax Court petition within 30 days of the determination, and the suspension continues while that case is pending.
• Withdrawal ends the suspension on the withdrawal date.

Equivalent hearings do not suspend

Miss the 30-day window and you may still get an equivalent hearing with Appeals. It is a real hearing, but it is not a CDP hearing under the statute. IRM 5.1.19.3.3 says the collection statute is not extended for equivalent hearings. No suspension, no 90-day floor. That cuts both ways: less protection from levy, but the clock keeps running.

Example A: a typical hearing

An assessment has a CSED of November 4, 2030. A timely CDP request is received March 16, 2026. Appeals issues a determination, no petition is filed, and the determination becomes final on August 3, 2026.

Example B: the 90-day floor

Now the CSED is close. An assessment expires September 1, 2026. The taxpayer receives a levy notice with CDP rights and files a timely request that the IRS receives August 10, 2026, with 22 days left on the clock. The determination becomes final December 15, 2026.

The suspension alone would have left the IRS 22 days after the hearing. The floor gives it 90. That is the design: Congress did not want a hearing request to run out the clock.

Example C: Tax Court review

Back to Example A, but the taxpayer petitions the Tax Court within 30 days of the determination. The Tax Court decision becomes final October 1, 2027. The suspension runs from March 16, 2026 until then.

Withdrawing the request

IRM 5.1.19.3.3 ends the suspension on the date the taxpayer withdraws the hearing request. Say the request in Example A is received March 16, 2026 and withdrawn May 1, 2026 after the taxpayer resolves the balance another way. The suspension is 46 days, and the CSED moves from November 4, 2030 to December 20, 2030. A withdrawal does not erase the days already suspended. It just stops adding more.

Overlaps with other suspensions

Collection alternatives are often raised in the CDP hearing itself: an installment agreement, an offer in compromise. Those carry their own suspensions under IRC 6331(k). IRM 5.1.19.3 says overlapping suspensions run concurrently, not cumulatively. If an offer is pending inside the CDP period, count the overlapping days once. See offer tolling and installment request tolling.

One hearing per period

IRC 6330(b)(2) allows one CDP hearing for the tax period covered by the notice. Later levy notices for the same period do not create new CDP rights or new suspensions. The first notice is the one that matters, so mark its date and the 30-day deadline.

Where this fits

The same notice that triggers CDP rights also triggers the 1 percent failure-to-pay rate 10 days later under IRC 6651(d); see the 1 percent rate guide. For the broader appeals process, see IRS Appeals: How to Challenge a Decision.

Checklist

1. Find the date the IRS received your CDP request, not the date you mailed it.
2. Find the date the determination became final, or the date you withdrew, or the date any court decision became final.
3. Count the days and add them to the CSED.
4. Compare the result to the 90th day after the final determination and use the later date.
5. Merge any overlapping offer or installment agreement suspensions.

Worked example: an offer raised inside the hearing

Collection alternatives are often proposed during the CDP hearing itself, and each carries its own suspension. Say the CDP request in Example A is received March 16, 2026. During the hearing, the taxpayer submits an offer in compromise that is accepted for processing April 20, 2026 and rejected December 1, 2026, with no separate appeal of the rejection. The offer's own suspension under IRC 6331(k)(1) runs to December 31, 2026, 30 days after the rejection, which is 255 days.

The Appeals determination in the CDP case becomes final February 15, 2027. The CDP suspension alone runs from March 16, 2026 to February 15, 2027, which is 336 days, and the entire offer period falls inside it. Under the concurrency rule in IRM 5.1.19.3, the overlapping days count once. The total suspension is 336 days, not 591, and the CSED moves from November 4, 2030 to October 6, 2031.

Counting the 30-day window

The 30 days to request a CDP hearing are described in the notice under IRC 6330(a)(3)(B) and run from the notice. The suspension, by contrast, starts when the IRS receives the timely request, under IRM 5.1.19.3.3. A request mailed on day 28 and received on day 33 can raise timeliness questions that a request received on day 10 never will. Send it early, by a method that proves delivery, and keep the proof.

If the request is late, the taxpayer may get an equivalent hearing. That hearing does not suspend the CSED and does not lead to Tax Court review. For a taxpayer whose CSED is close, that difference can be the whole case.

Lien hearings and levy hearings on the same year

A taxpayer can receive two kinds of CDP notices for the same tax: one after a notice of federal tax lien is filed, under IRC 6320, and one before levy, under IRC 6330. Each carries its own hearing right. If both hearings are requested on time and are pending at the same time, the suspensions overlap and count once. If they are months apart, each adds its own days. Track them separately on the transcript and merge them before adding to the CSED.

The 90-day floor applies to each final determination. If the second hearing ends with fewer than 90 days left on the clock, the IRS still gets 90 days from that determination.

The bottom line

A timely CDP request suspends the CSED from receipt to final determination, including Tax Court review, and the IRS always gets at least 90 days afterward. Equivalent hearings do not suspend anything. Request the hearing for the right reasons, and know the date math before you do.