CP49
informationalOverpayment Adjustment — Refund Applied to Other Liabilities
The IRS used all or part of your refund to pay a tax debt.
No deadline. Anything left over is mailed within about three weeks.
If it passes. Nothing further; the offset has already happened.
Why you got it
You had a refund and an outstanding federal tax liability.
What rights it carries
You can call to dispute it. If the offset paid a spouse's separate debt out of a joint refund, Form 8379 claims your share back.
Do you have to respond?
Optional.
The mistake people make
For married filers, not filing Form 8379 when the offset paid the other spouse's separate or pre-marital liability. The money is gone once the year closes out.
If crypto is why this arrived, the number on it is probably wrong.
Your exchange reports what you sold for and leaves the cost box blank, so any figure the IRS computes from it treats every coin as though it cost you nothing. Rebuild the basis from your own transaction history — free — and see the real number before the deadline above runs out.
Notices that arrive around this one
CP14 — Your first bill. Tax has been assessed and it has not been paid. CP15 — The IRS has assessed a civil penalty against you and is billing you for it. CP501 — A reminder that you still owe a balance. CP503 — The IRS has not heard from you and the balance is still unpaid.Every notice in the library → Not sure it is really from the IRS? →
Sources: IRS — Understanding your CP49 notice. Retrieved 2026-08-28. Where the IRS publishes no day count we say so rather than repeat a number we cannot source — the date printed on your own notice is the one that governs. ClearBasis is tax software, not a tax adviser, and this is information rather than advice.