CP508C, Passport Certification

A CP508C tells you the IRS has certified your tax debt as seriously delinquent to the State Department. From that point the State Department will generally refuse to issue or renew your passport, and it may revoke one you hold. The certification is reversible, and it reverses fastest when the debt is put into a qualifying arrangement rather than argued about.

What triggers certification

Under section 7345 the IRS certifies a debt that is legally enforceable, assessed, and above a threshold written into the statute as $50,000 and indexed for inflation each year. The debt has to be one where a lien has been filed and the lien hearing rights have lapsed, or a levy has been issued. Penalties and interest count toward the threshold.

Debts that are not certified

• Balances being paid under an installment agreement or an accepted offer in compromise
• Balances with a collection due process hearing, or an innocent spouse request, still pending
• Accounts in currently-not-collectible status because of hardship, and taxpayers in bankruptcy
• Debts the IRS has identified as resulting from identity theft, taxpayers in a combat zone, and taxpayers in a declared disaster area

If one of these applied at the time of certification, the certification was made in error and should be reversed on request.

Reversing the certification

The IRS reverses certification, and sends a CP508R, when the debt is paid in full, becomes unenforceable, or is placed in one of the arrangements above. The most common route is an installment agreement: once it is in place, the IRS notifies the State Department within about 30 days. If you have travel within 45 days, the IRS can expedite the reversal when you provide proof of the trip, such as tickets or a work itinerary, and a pending passport application.

Disputing it

Section 7345 allows a suit in the Tax Court or a federal district court to determine whether the certification was erroneous or should have been reversed. That route is slow. In practice the fastest path is resolving the underlying account. The passport revocation page covers the collection side, and the notices overview explains where CP508C sits in the sequence.