Where to Send Form 8862: E-Filing, Mailing, and IRS Notices

Form 8862 is filed as an attachment to your tax return, so it goes wherever your Form 1040 goes. If you e-file, the form transmits electronically with the return. If you paper file, put Form 8862 in the same envelope as your signed 1040 and mail it to the IRS service center for your state. There is no separate address for Form 8862 on its own, and the IRS instructions direct you to “complete Form 8862 and attach it to your tax return.”¹

E-File It With Your Return

For most people, this is the answer. Tax software supports Form 8862 as part of an e-filed return. When you claim a credit the IRS previously disallowed, the program should prompt you through the questions on the form and transmit it with your Form 1040 or 1040-SR. E-filing is faster than mailing, produces fewer processing errors, and gives you an electronic confirmation that the IRS received the package.

There is one situation where e-filing won’t work. If a two-year or ten-year ban on the credit has just expired and this is your first return reclaiming it, the IRS will reject the electronic submission. The Form 8862 instructions state that “you must mail this tax return to the IRS because we will reject an e-filed return that attempts to claim a credit during a ban period.”² If that describes you, skip to the mailing addresses below.

Mailing Addresses for a Paper Return

When you mail, Form 8862 sits behind your signed 1040 in the same envelope. The correct service center depends on your state and on whether you are enclosing a payment. For returns filed without a payment, the IRS routes individual returns to three main centers:

Austin, TX 73301-0002 — Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
Kansas City, MO 64999-0002 — Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Ogden, UT 84201-0002 — Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, and several other western states.

If you’re enclosing a payment, the address changes, typically to Charlotte, NC or Louisville, KY depending on the state. These addresses shift from year to year, so confirm the current one on the IRS’s “Where to File” page before you send anything.³

Send the return by certified mail or another trackable service. Proof of the mailing date matters if the IRS ever questions when the return arrived, and paper returns with Form 8862 already take longer than the standard processing window.

If You’re Responding to an IRS Notice

Notices in the CP79 series tell you the IRS disallowed one or more credits and lay out any ban period. The CP79A explains a disallowance and any ban that applies, and the CP79B covers disallowances tied to fraud and the longer ten-year ban.⁴⁵ You don’t send Form 8862 in response to these notices. You send it with your next tax return, after the ban period ends, on the return where you reclaim the credit.

If the IRS sends you a letter asking for more information about a credit you already claimed, use the address printed on that letter, not the general service center addresses above. The letter’s address routes your response to the specific unit handling your case. Include copies of supporting documents (never originals), and put the notice number from the upper right corner of the letter on your response.

Which Credits Trigger the Form 8862 Requirement

Form 8862 is required when you want to reclaim any of these credits after the IRS previously reduced or disallowed them for a reason other than a math or clerical error:

Earned Income Credit (EIC)
Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC)
Credit for Other Dependents (ODC)
American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC)

The form certifies that you now meet every eligibility requirement for the credit. A math error correction on a prior return doesn’t create the requirement; only a substantive determination by the IRS does.⁶

When You Don’t Need to Send It

You only need to file Form 8862 once. If you already filed it, the IRS allowed the credit, and the credit hasn’t been disallowed again for anything beyond a math error, you don’t have to keep attaching the form every year.²

There is also a narrow EIC exception. If the only reason your EIC was disallowed was that a child listed on your Schedule EIC turned out not to be a qualifying child, and you’re now claiming the EIC with no qualifying child, Form 8862 is not required.²

And don’t send Form 8862 while a ban period is still running. The form is for the return on which you reclaim the credit after the ban ends, not for the years covered by the ban itself. Filing it early won’t shorten the ban.

Getting Help With a Specific Situation

The IRS taxpayer assistance line at 1-800-829-1040 handles questions about Form 8862 filing requirements and can confirm the correct mailing address for your state and payment status before you send a paper return.⁷

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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8862, Information To Claim Certain Credits After Disallowance
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8862 – Information To Claim Certain Credits After Disallowance
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Internal Revenue Service. Where to File Paper Tax Returns With or Without a Payment
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Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your CP79A Notice
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Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your CP79B Notice
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Internal Revenue Service. What to Do if We Deny Your Claim for a Credit
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USAGov. Contact the IRS for Questions About Your Tax Return