Form 15108: Tax Deposit Correction After a CP108 Notice

IRS Form 15108, “Correction to Your Federal Tax Deposit (FTD),” is a one-page form you use to tell the IRS to move a federal tax deposit it applied to the wrong tax form or tax period. It usually arrives attached to Notice CP108, and returning it with the correct form number and period ending date reassigns your payment so the account it should have credited is no longer treated as unpaid.¹

When the IRS Sends You This Form

The IRS mails Form 15108 with a notice when it received your payment but couldn’t match it to a specific return or period. Notice CP108 is the most common cover notice. You may also see Notice CP60, which tells you the IRS removed a payment from one account and reassigned it, leaving a balance due where you thought you were paid.²

The form covers deposits tied to employment tax returns: Form 941 (quarterly), Form 940 (federal unemployment), Form 943 (agricultural), Form 944 (annual small-employer), and Form 945 (withheld income tax on nonpayroll payments).³ The usual causes are simple: the wrong tax type code selected in EFTPS, the wrong period ending date entered, or an IRS posting error during processing.

What to Put on the Form

Before you start, pull together the exact dollar amount of the deposit, the date it was made, the tax form number it should apply to, your Taxpayer Identification Number (usually your EIN), and the correct tax period ending date.⁴

The form has two parts. In the contact section, enter your name, TIN, address, city, state, ZIP, a primary phone number, an optional secondary number, and the best time to reach you. If your address has changed since your last filing, update it here. In the payment application section, enter the dollar amount, the date the payment was made, the tax form number (“941,” “940,” and so on), and the tax period ending date written as a full date, for example 03/31/2026 for the first quarter of 2026.

The period ending date is the whole point of the form, so check it against your deposit records or payroll calendar. Form 941 filers use March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31. Form 940 and Form 944 filers use December 31 of the relevant tax year.

Where to Send It

Mail the completed form to the IRS address printed on the notice you received. The form itself says: “If we didn’t apply the payment correctly, complete this form and mail it to us at the address on the attached notice.”⁴ There is no universal address. Don’t substitute a generic IRS mailing address; the notice tells you which campus should receive it.

You can also call the phone number on your notice instead of mailing the form, and a representative can process the correction over the phone if you have your payment details in front of you.¹ The IRS business and specialty tax line, 800-829-4933, can also handle deposit correction inquiries. Keep a copy of the form and proof of the original payment (canceled checks, EFTPS confirmation numbers, or bank statements) in case the IRS asks for documentation.

Why You Shouldn’t Sit on It

When the IRS doesn’t see a deposit credited to the correct period, that period is treated as underpaid, and the failure-to-deposit penalty under IRC 6656 escalates by how many days the deposit appears late:⁵

1 to 5 days late: 2 percent of the undeposited tax
6 to 15 days late: 5 percent
More than 15 days late: 10 percent
After a delinquency notice or demand for immediate payment: 15 percent

Those percentages are calculated on the amount that should have been deposited for the period, so on a quarterly payroll deposit even the 2 percent tier is real money. Returning Form 15108 before a penalty is assessed, or immediately after the penalty notice arrives, puts you in the strongest position to have it removed or reduced.

Designating Deposits After a Penalty Notice

If a failure-to-deposit penalty has already been assessed, IRC 6656(e) gives you 90 days from the date of the notice to designate which period or periods a deposit should cover. This lets you reallocate deposits across periods within the same return to reduce the total penalty. The 90-day deadline is firm; requests after that cannot be considered.⁶

Designation applies to deposits for Forms 940, 941, 943, 944, 945, and 720, and you can do it in writing (Form 15108 works) or by phone. If deposits span several periods in a quarter, you can also ask for a first-in, first-out computation, which sometimes produces the lowest penalty. The IRS won’t raise a penalty through redesignation; if a new allocation would increase it, the IRS keeps the lower amount unless you agree otherwise.

Asking for Reasonable Cause Relief

IRC 6656 also lets the IRS waive the failure-to-deposit penalty entirely for reasonable cause where the failure wasn’t due to willful neglect. A misapplied payment (money that left your account on time but posted to the wrong period) is one of the more straightforward reasonable cause arguments. Attach the EFTPS confirmation, bank records showing the debit date, and the IRS notice showing where the payment landed. Respond to the first penalty notice rather than waiting, because the penalty rate climbs to 15 percent once a delinquency notice is issued.⁵

Avoiding the Problem Next Time

Most deposit errors start at the point of payment. Before confirming an EFTPS payment, check three fields: the tax type number (94105 for Form 941, 09405 for Form 940, and so on), the tax period ending date, and the settlement date. A single wrong digit in the tax type sends the deposit to a different form’s account.

Semi-weekly depositors make more payments per quarter and therefore have more chances to make an error. Reconciling deposit totals against your quarterly return before filing catches problems while they’re easy to fix. If you catch a mistake right after submitting a payment, calling EFTPS customer service at 800-555-4477 the same day sometimes lets you correct it before it settles; once it posts, moving it takes Form 15108 or a call to the number on your notice.³

1
Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your CP108 Notice
2
Taxpayer Advocate Service. Notice CP60 – We Removed Payments From Your Account
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Internal Revenue Service. Depositing and Reporting Employment Taxes
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 15108 – Correction to Your Federal Tax Deposit
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6656 – Failure to Make Deposit of Taxes
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Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Manual 20.1.4 – Failure to Deposit Penalty