Letter 6173
act on thisReporting Virtual Currency Transactions — response required
A compliance demand about crypto. Unlike its two siblings, this one requires an answer by a printed date.
The letter carries a printed 'respond by' date rather than a fixed count. A 30-day extension can be requested using the instructions in the letter.
If it passes. In the letter's own words, the IRS may refer your account for examination, and underpayments carry interest and penalties.
Why you got it
The IRS obtained your name through its compliance efforts and believes you may not have reported virtual currency transactions.
What rights it carries
None. This is a pre-enforcement contact, not a deficiency or collection notice — no Tax Court right, no CDP right, no Appeals protest right.
Do you have to respond?
Required. File delinquent returns, file an amended return, or submit a written statement of compliance with supporting documentation and a declaration under penalty of perjury.
The mistake people make
Treating it like Letter 6174. And, specific to this one: signing that written statement under penalty of perjury without first reconstructing the actual transaction history. It is a sworn document that becomes evidence in any later examination.
The IRS publishes the letter itself as a PDF, so you can compare what you received against the real thing page for page.
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
CP2501 — An earlier, softer version of the CP2000: the IRS has spotted a mismatch but has not yet computed a proposed tax change. Letter 6174 — An educational letter. The IRS knows you have or had virtual currency accounts and wants you to know the rules. CP2000 — The IRS thinks third parties reported income you did not report, and it is proposing — not assessing — more tax. Letter 525 — The examination is over, here is what the IRS proposes to change, and you have 30 days to protest before it becomes formal.Every notice in the library → Not sure it is really from the IRS? →
Sources: IRS — Letter 6173 · IRS — Voluntary compliance letters · IR-2019-132. 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.