IRS Notice CP75 is a letter telling you the IRS is auditing your return by mail to verify the Earned Income Tax Credit you claimed. The agency is holding the refundable-credit portion of your refund while it reviews your eligibility, and you have 30 days from the date on the notice to send documents proving the credit before the IRS proposes changes to your return.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS CP75 Notice It is not an accusation of fraud. It is a correspondence audit, and most people resolve it by sending the right paperwork on time.
What Is Happening to Your Refund
A correspondence examination is an audit conducted entirely by mail. The IRS is not looking at every line of your return. It is checking specific refundable credits, primarily the Earned Income Tax Credit, and in some cases the Additional Child Tax Credit or the Recovery Rebate Credit.2Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your CP75 Notice
While the audit is open, the IRS holds the piece of your refund tied to those credits. Any portion of your refund unrelated to the credits under review should still be released on the normal schedule. The frozen amount stays frozen until the examiner finishes reviewing your documents and closes the case.
If your notice is labeled CP75A instead, the response process and 30-day deadline work the same way; CP75A just covers a few additional items beyond the Earned Income Tax Credit, such as filing status.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 654, Understanding Your CP75 or CP75A Notice, Request for Supporting Documentation
What the IRS Wants You to Prove
The forms enclosed with the notice, in particular Form 886-H-EIC, list exactly what documents count. For the Earned Income Tax Credit claimed with a qualifying child, the IRS is verifying four things about the child, plus your income.4Internal Revenue Service. Qualifying Child Rules for the Earned Income Tax Credit
- Relationship. The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, sibling, half-sibling, or a descendant of any of them, such as a grandchild or niece.
- Age. The child must be under 19 at the end of the tax year, under 24 if a full-time student, or permanently and totally disabled at any age.
- Residency. The child must have lived with you in the United States for more than half the tax year. Temporary absences for school, medical care, or military service still count as time lived together.
- Joint return. The child cannot have filed a joint return with a spouse for the year, unless the return was filed only to claim a refund.
The IRS is also checking your earned income. Wage earners can rely on W-2s. If you are self-employed, the agency wants to confirm the income on your Schedule C is accurate, which usually means bank statements, invoices, and expense records covering the full year.
Documents That Actually Work
Relationship and age are the easy tests. A birth certificate usually handles both at once. Adoption papers, a placement letter for a foster child, or court custody documents work as well. If the child was not born in the United States, you will need a birth certificate or immigration documents translated into English.
Residency is where most responses fall short. No single document conclusively proves a child lived with you for more than half the year, so you build a picture from several. School enrollment or attendance records showing your address are strong. So are medical records, childcare provider statements, or letters from a landlord, social services agency, or place of worship confirming the child’s address for the tax year in question.4Internal Revenue Service. Qualifying Child Rules for the Earned Income Tax Credit Overlapping records from different sources make a stronger case than one document alone.
Send copies of everything. Never mail original documents to the IRS. Each document should clearly show the tax year listed on your notice.
How to Send Your Response
Your notice includes the mailing address for the IRS campus handling your case. Include the tear-off stub, or a cover sheet with the CP75 notice number and your Social Security Number, so the examiner can match your documents to the right file. If you mail, use certified mail with a return receipt; that receipt is your proof of the date the IRS received your package if the deadline is ever disputed.
You can also upload documents through the IRS Document Upload Tool, which accepts JPG, PNG, or PDF files and gives you an on-screen confirmation.5Internal Revenue Service. IRS Document Upload Tool Either method works. Whichever you use, organize the documents so the examiner can quickly see which record proves which test.
If You Need More Time
If 30 days is not enough, call the phone number printed on the notice before the deadline runs out. The IRS can grant additional time to respond.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 654, Understanding Your CP75 or CP75A Notice, Request for Supporting Documentation What you cannot do is stay silent. Ignoring the deadline tells the IRS you are not going to substantiate the credit, and the agency will move ahead with disallowing it.
What Happens After You Respond
Expect the review to take several weeks, and longer during peak filing season. Three outcomes are possible.
- Full acceptance. The IRS verifies your eligibility and releases the held refund. The money usually arrives within eight weeks of the closure, assuming you do not owe other federal taxes or debts the IRS is required to collect.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 654, Understanding Your CP75 or CP75A Notice, Request for Supporting Documentation
- Partial adjustment. The IRS accepts some items but disallows others. You receive an examination report explaining the changes and any smaller refund or balance due.
- Full disallowance. The IRS finds your documentation insufficient and proposes removing the credits, which increases your tax liability. You receive an audit report showing the proposed changes.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS CP75 Notice
Interest on a Delayed Refund
When a CP75 audit delays your refund beyond 45 days after your return’s original due date, the IRS owes you interest on the held amount.6eCFR. 26 CFR 301.6611-1 – Interest on Overpayments The rate adjusts quarterly. For the first quarter of 2026, the individual rate is 7% per year compounded daily.7Internal Revenue Service. Interest Rates Remain the Same for the First Quarter of 2026 For the second quarter of 2026, it drops to 6%.8Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2026-8 Interest is added automatically when the refund is released.
If the IRS Disallows Your Credit
You have two paths if you disagree with the examination report, and the order matters.
The first is a review by the IRS Independent Office of Appeals, which operates separately from the examination team. For disputed amounts of $25,000 or less in tax, penalties, and interest, you can request an appeal by submitting Form 12203 or a brief written statement explaining why you disagree.9Internal Revenue Service. Publication 3498-A, The Examination Process (Audits by Mail) Send it within the timeframe shown in the report. Many correspondence audit disputes are resolved at this stage.
If Appeals does not resolve it, or you skip Appeals, the IRS will eventually send a Statutory Notice of Deficiency. That is the formal document that triggers your right to sue in court. You have 90 days from the date on the notice to file a petition with the U.S. Tax Court, or 150 days if you are outside the United States.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6213 – Restrictions Applicable to Deficiencies; Petition to Tax Court Tax Court lets you contest the tax before paying it, which is a significant advantage. For amounts of $50,000 or less per tax year, the court offers a simplified small case procedure.9Internal Revenue Service. Publication 3498-A, The Examination Process (Audits by Mail)
The 90-day deadline is absolute. The IRS cannot extend it, and continuing to talk with an examiner or with Appeals does not pause the clock. Miss it and the tax gets assessed, collection begins, and your remaining option is to pay the full amount and then sue for a refund in another court.
Bans on Claiming the Credit in Future Years
Losing the credit for the year under audit is not always the end of it. If the IRS makes a final determination that you disregarded the eligibility rules, it can bar you from claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit on future returns.
- A two-year ban applies where the IRS finds reckless or intentional disregard of the rules.
- A ten-year ban applies where the IRS finds fraud.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 32 – Earned Income
Bans do not apply to honest mistakes or ordinary negligence. Even without a ban, any taxpayer who has the credit disallowed through the deficiency process must provide additional documentation to claim it on future returns, so expect closer scrutiny going forward.
Free Help If You Cannot Afford a Preparer
Responding to a mail audit can feel overwhelming, particularly if English is not your first language or you prepared the return yourself. Low Income Taxpayer Clinics offer free or low-cost help with audits, appeals, and Tax Court cases, and they can represent you before the IRS.12Internal Revenue Service. Low Income Taxpayer Clinics To qualify, your income generally must fall below a set threshold and the amount in dispute is usually under $50,000. You can find a clinic through the IRS website or the Taxpayer Advocate Service.