To find your IRS Collection Statute Expiration Date, pull your tax account transcript for each year you owe and add 10 years to the assessment date shown next to Transaction Code 150. That’s the baseline. If anything paused the collection clock along the way, such as a bankruptcy filing or an Offer in Compromise, you’ll need to add that suspended time back on. You can get the transcript through your IRS online account, by calling the IRS, by mailing Form 4506-T, or by having a tax professional pull it for you.
The IRS doesn’t print a line on your transcript that says “CSED.” You have to read a few transaction codes, or ask a representative to tell you the date directly.
What You’ll Need Before You Look
Have this ready so the lookup goes quickly:
- Your Social Security number or ITIN.
- The specific tax years you owe. The IRS tracks each year separately, and each assessment has its own CSED.
- Your current and any prior mailing addresses used on returns for those years.
- Any IRS notices you’ve received about the balance. Notice numbers help a representative pull the right account.
- Payment records, so you can verify balances and payment history against what the IRS shows.
One thing to know going in: a single tax year can have more than one CSED. Your original return created one assessment. An audit, an amended return that added tax, a civil penalty, or a substitute-for-return assessment each starts its own 10-year clock from the date it posted. Look at every assessment on the year, not just the first one.
Three Ways to Pull Your Transcript
IRS Online Account
The fastest route is the IRS online account at IRS.gov/account. You’ll verify your identity through ID.me, then download a tax account transcript for the year in question.1Internal Revenue Service. Online Account for Individuals The transcript shows assessment dates, payment history, and the transaction codes you need. Tax account transcripts are available online for the current year and the nine prior tax years.2Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Types for Individuals and Ways to Order Them If your debt is older than that, use a different method.
Phone
Call the IRS individual line at 1-800-829-1040, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time.3Internal Revenue Service. Let Us Help You Ask the representative for the CSED on each tax year you owe. They can see it in their system, but they don’t always volunteer it, so ask directly. While you’re on the line, confirm the assessment dates and any suspension periods the account shows.
To get a transcript mailed rather than a spoken answer, call the automated transcript line at 1-800-908-9946. It covers the current year and three prior years only.2Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Types for Individuals and Ways to Order Them
File Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, and check the box for a tax account transcript. List each tax year separately.4Internal Revenue Service. About Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return Delivery generally takes 5 to 10 calendar days, sometimes longer. This is the slowest option, but useful if you can’t verify identity online and don’t want to sit on hold.
Through a Tax Professional
An enrolled agent, CPA, or tax attorney can pull your account with a signed Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative. Line 3 of that form has to list the specific tax years and matters the representative is authorized to handle.5Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2848 Once authorized, they can call the Practitioner Priority Service or pull transcripts electronically through e-Services, which is often faster and more detailed than what a taxpayer sees on their own. This is the route to consider if your account has multiple assessments and several tolling events, because the math gets layered fast.
Reading the Transcript: The Codes That Matter
A tax account transcript is a coded log of everything that has happened on the account for that year. Three codes tell you almost everything you need.
Transaction Code 150 is your initial tax assessment. The date next to TC 150 is the day the IRS officially recorded the tax owed, and it’s the day the 10-year collection window starts.6Taxpayer Advocate Service. Decoding IRS Transcripts and the New Transcript Format Part II If nothing else has happened on the account, TC 150 date plus 10 years is your CSED.
Look for any additional assessments posted after TC 150. Audit adjustments, amended-return increases, civil penalties, and trust fund recovery penalties each carry their own dates and their own 10-year clocks.7Taxpayer Advocate Service. Collection Statute Expiration Date CSED
Transaction Code 520 marks the start of a suspension: bankruptcy, litigation, a Collection Due Process hearing, or similar. Transaction Code 521 marks when that suspension ended. The time between the two dates gets added back onto the 10-year window, along with any additional statutory buffer (for example, six months after a bankruptcy closes).8Internal Revenue Service. 5.1.19 Collection Statute Expiration Each TC 520 carries a closing code identifying the reason.
Transaction Code 608 means the CSED has already passed and the IRS cleared the balance to zero because the collection statute ran out.9Internal Revenue Service. Section 8A – Master File Codes If you see a TC 608, the debt is gone.
For a simple account (one TC 150, no TC 520/521 pairs, no extra assessments), the arithmetic is TC 150 date plus 10 years and you’re done. For anything more complicated, either work through each suspension carefully or ask an IRS representative to state the CSED outright.
Events That May Have Shifted Your CSED
Even if your transcript looks clean, walk through your own history. Anything on the following list pauses the collection clock while it’s happening, and the paused time (often plus a buffer) is added to your CSED:10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6503 – Suspension of Running of Period of Limitation
- A bankruptcy filing (plus six months after the case closes).
- A pending Offer in Compromise (plus 30 days after rejection, plus any appeal).7Taxpayer Advocate Service. Collection Statute Expiration Date CSED
- A timely Collection Due Process hearing request and any Tax Court litigation that follows. An equivalent hearing request does not suspend the clock.11Internal Revenue Service. IRM Part 5 Collecting Process – 5.1.9 Collection Appeal Rights
- A pending installment agreement request, plus 30 days after rejection or termination, plus any appeal.12Internal Revenue Service. 5.14.2 Partial Payment Installment Agreements and the Collection Statute Expiration Date CSED
- An innocent spouse relief claim (plus 60 days, longer if you petition Tax Court).13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6015 – Relief From Joint and Several Liability on Joint Return
- Time spent outside the United States for a continuous period of six months or more.
- Military service that materially affects your ability to pay, plus 270 days after separation.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 U.S. Code Chapter 50 – Servicemembers Civil Relief
- A signed Form 900, Tax Collection Waiver, usually tied to a Partial Payment Installment Agreement.8Internal Revenue Service. 5.1.19 Collection Statute Expiration
Most of these should show up on the transcript as TC 520/521 pairs or related codes, but not always in the way a casual reader would recognize. If you know one of these happened and you don’t see it reflected, that’s a good reason to call and ask the representative to walk through the suspensions on the account.
The Simplest Route: Ask the IRS for the Date
You don’t have to compute the CSED yourself. When you call 1-800-829-1040 or when your representative calls the Practitioner Priority Service, the IRS can tell you the current CSED for each assessment on each year you owe. That’s the cleanest answer, because it already accounts for every tolling event the IRS has recorded. Use the transcript to check the answer against the codes, and to spot assessments the representative may not have highlighted.
One Boundary: State Tax Debt Runs on Its Own Clock
The 10-year federal CSED applies only to federal tax debt. State collection statutes vary, some shorter and some substantially longer, and some states have no expiration at all for unfiled or fraudulent returns. If you owe a state balance too, contact that state’s tax agency separately. Federal expiration does nothing to a state debt.