IRS Letter 1352 is a response from the IRS to a request involving the federal estate tax lien that attaches automatically to a deceased person’s property. It is not an identity verification letter, and it has nothing to do with confirming who filed a Form 1040. If you are handling an estate and applied to have property released from the estate tax lien, Letter 1352 is how the IRS answers you. If you were expecting a notice about your personal tax return, you likely received a different letter, and the response method is different.
What Letter 1352 Covers
When someone dies, a federal estate tax lien can attach to the assets of the estate. Executors, administrators, and other interested parties sometimes need that lien discharged from specific property so it can be sold or transferred with clean title. The usual vehicle for that request is Form 4422, Application for Certificate Discharging Property Subject to Estate Tax Lien. Letter 1352 is the IRS response to that kind of application, and it is issued through the estate tax lien function described in the Internal Revenue Manual.1Internal Revenue Service. IRM 5.5.8 – Advisory Responsibilities for Processing Estate Tax Liens
What the Letter Can Say
Letter 1352 is not a single message. It is a form the IRS uses to deliver one of several possible answers to a discharge request. Read your copy carefully to see which of these applies to your estate.
- The estate was not required to file an estate tax return, so no discharge certificate is needed. In that situation, the lien issue is resolved without further action from the IRS.
- The IRS needs more information before it can evaluate the discharge application. The letter will identify what is missing.
- The request is denied because the government’s interest in the property cannot be resolved on the terms proposed.1Internal Revenue Service. IRM 5.5.8 – Advisory Responsibilities for Processing Estate Tax Liens
Which version you received determines what you do next. A letter telling you no return was required is essentially a closing communication for that discharge question. A request for more information calls for a prompt, complete response so the application can move forward. A denial means the property remains subject to the estate tax lien until the underlying issue is addressed.
Responding to Letter 1352
Your response works through the estate tax process, not the individual income tax process. That distinction matters. There is no online portal to click, no identity verification tool to run, and no Taxpayer Protection Program hotline that applies here. The letter itself is the roadmap: it identifies the property, the application it is answering, and, where relevant, the specific information the IRS still needs or the reason a discharge cannot be issued.
Because estate tax lien matters can affect the ability to close a sale of estate property, timing often matters. If the letter asks for additional documentation, gather it and reply through the contact information on the letter itself. If the letter denies the application, the estate’s representatives have to decide whether to cure the underlying problem, provide a substitute for the government’s interest, or accept that the property will transfer subject to the lien. Estates with meaningful tax exposure typically involve a tax professional or attorney at this stage; the questions are fact-specific and turn on the estate’s return, its assets, and any tax owed.
If You Were Expecting an Identity Verification Letter
People sometimes land on Letter 1352 while searching for a notice that asked them to prove their identity before the IRS will process a return. Letter 1352 is not that notice. The IRS uses three different letters for identity verification of a filed Form 1040-series return, and each has its own response method.
- The CP5071 series, including Letter 5071C, allows online verification at irs.gov/verifyreturn, with a phone option printed on the notice for anyone who cannot verify online.2Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your CP5071 Series Notice
- Letter 4883C requires a call to the Taxpayer Protection Program Hotline printed on the letter. There is no online option. If phone verification does not succeed, the IRS will direct you to an in-person appointment.3Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Letter 4883C
- Letter 5747C requires in-person verification at a Taxpayer Assistance Center by appointment scheduled through the number on the letter.4Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Letter 5747C
Check the letter number in the top right corner of the page. If it is 1352, you are in the estate tax lien track described above. If it is a CP5071, 5071C, 4883C, or 5747C, follow the method for that specific letter. Trying to run identity verification against Letter 1352, or trying to work an estate lien question through the identity verification hotline, will not move either matter forward.
If You Did Not File a Return but Got an Identity Verification Notice
If the letter you actually received is a 4883C, 5071C, or 5747C, and you did not file the return it references, call the Taxpayer Protection Program Hotline on the letter and tell the IRS you did not file that return.4Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Letter 5747C After reporting it, submit Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit, so the IRS can flag your account. The preferred method is the online submission at irs.gov/dmaf/form/f14039; the form can also be faxed with a cover sheet marked “Confidential” or mailed. Only file one Form 14039 per incident.5Internal Revenue Service. Identity Theft Affidavit (Form 14039) Again, this track has nothing to do with Letter 1352.
Confirming the Letter Is Legitimate
Because scammers imitate the IRS, take a minute to confirm any letter you receive is real before responding. The IRS recommends signing in to your IRS Online Account to see whether the notice appears in your records, checking the notice against the samples posted at irs.gov, or calling IRS customer service to authenticate what you received.6Internal Revenue Service. Ways to Tell if the IRS Is Reaching Out or if It’s a Scammer
A few signals tend to mark a fake. A real IRS letter will not tell you to click a link and enter personal information, will not demand payment by gift card or wire transfer, and will not ask you to reply by email. Genuine IRS letters point you to a specific IRS page, a toll-free number, or a Taxpayer Assistance Center. If any part of a letter claiming to be Letter 1352 pressures you to send money outside those channels, treat it as suspicious and verify through the IRS directly before you act on it.
For estates working through an actual Letter 1352, the letter itself is the anchor. It identifies the property, the application, and the office handling the matter, and it tells you either that the estate is done, that the IRS needs something more, or that the discharge is not going to be issued as requested. Read which of those it says, and respond on that basis.