CP75 Notice: What It Means & How to Respond

The Earned Income Credit is one of the largest refundable credits in the tax code, which makes it one of the most audited lines on any tax return, and CP75 audits fall heavily on ordinary working families who qualify completely. If that's you, hold onto this: a CP75 is not an accusation, it's a documentation request, and the families who lose these audits mostly lose them by not responding or by sending the wrong kind of paper. The rules for what counts as proof are specific, slightly unintuitive, and entirely learnable in the next ten minutes.

What is a CP75 notice?

A CP75 opens a correspondence audit, an examination conducted entirely by mail and upload, of credits claimed on your return: the Earned Income Credit (EIC), and depending on your case the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) or Recovery Rebate Credit (RRC). While the audit is open, the IRS holds the credit portions of your refund; whatever part of your refund doesn't depend on the audited credits is handled separately.

Unlike the refund reviews behind a CP05, this is formally an examination, but don't let the word conjure agents and briefcases. No one visits. The notice comes with enclosed forms (the 886-H series) listing acceptable documents, you send copies, and an examiner reviews them. Prove the elements and the credits are released in full, with the audit closed as a "no change." The IRS's own guides for this process are Publication 596 (the EIC rules) and Publication 3498-A (how correspondence exams work).

Why you received it

• Random and rule-based selection. EIC claims are screened intensively because the credit is refundable; plenty of audited returns are simply selected, not suspected.
• A qualifying-child data gap.The IRS couldn't confirm from its records that the child lived with you more than half the year, the residency test is the single most audited element.
• Duplicate claims. Two people, separated parents, a parent and a grandparent, claimed the same child. The audit sorts out who meets the rules.
• Filing status questions. Head-of-household status paired with the EIC draws verification of both.
• Income patterns. Self-employment income that lands precisely in the maximum-credit range invites a closer look at the underlying records.

How to read your CP75

The proof playbook: documenting a qualifying child

Most CP75 audits turn on three facts about each child, and each fact has its own kind of evidence:

Relationship. A birth certificateshowing you as parent settles it. For grandchildren, nieces or nephews, build the chain: the child's birth certificate plus the ones connecting the child's parent to you. Adoption decrees and placement letters cover adopted and foster children.

Residency, the one that decides most audits. You need records fromthird parties showing the child at your address during the tax year, ideally spanning more than half of it: school records (enrollment or report cards showing the home address), medical records from doctors or clinics,daycare or social-service records, or a dated letter on letterhead from a school, healthcare provider, clergy member or landlord confirming the child lived with you. Your own lease, utility bills and mail help anchor youraddress so the child's records match it.

Age. The birth certificate already in your stack covers it; for students aged 19-23, add school enrollment records for the year.

Depending on your notice, you may also need to document filing status(divorce decree, separate-residence proof for head of household) or earned income (business records, invoices and bank deposits for self-employment). Match each request on the enclosed checklist to at least one document, as one strong record per element beats a shoebox of loosely related paper.

Your response options

How to respond, step by step

1. Inventory the checklist against your family's paper trail

   Read the enclosed 886-H forms line by line: relationship, residency, age, status, income. For each, name the document you'll use before requesting anything.

2. Request the missing records early

   Schools, pediatricians and daycares produce records-with-address letters routinely, but on their timeline. Start those requests in week one, not week four.

3. Copies only, labeled by element

   Never send originals, birth certificates and school records are painful to replace. Mark each copy with the child's name and the test it proves.

4. Submit through the Document Upload Tool

   The correspondence-exam upload tool on your notice is fastest and timestamped; fax and mail to the listed address work too. Include the notice's response page, and keep your proof of the date.

5. Ask for time if you need it, before the date

   Records stuck at a school office? Call the number on the notice and request an extension rather than sending an incomplete package silently.

6. Track the audit to its close

   Expect the examiner's answer in the weeks after submission: a no-change letter and released credits, a follow-up request, or a report you can contest. The file stays open until you see the closure in writing.

What's at stake beyond this year

A CP75 resolved well ends with your money and a closed file. Unanswered, it ends with the credits disallowed by default and an examination report proposing the change, recoverable, but from a weaker position. And EIC disallowance can echo forward: after a disallowance, claiming the credit again generally requires filing Form 8862with your future returns, and claims found reckless or fraudulent can bring multi-year bans from the credit entirely. The difference between those futures is usually one competently assembled envelope, sent on time. If your situation is tangled, shared custody disputes, multiple households, a tax professional or a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (free for those who qualify) is worth involving early.

Common mistakes with a CP75

• Not responding out of fear or overwhelm, silence converts a paperwork exercise into a guaranteed disallowance plus future Form 8862 requirements.
• Sending the wrong genre of proof, photos and personal statements instead of school, medical and daycare records with addresses and dates.
• Ignoring the address chain, a child's school record showing an address that matches nothing else in the file proves little; anchor your own address alongside.
• Mailing originals, copies always; originals don't return.
• Going silent in a duplicate-claim fight, when two households claimed the same child, the one that documents the residency test wins; the one that doesn't respond loses by default.

CP75, Frequently asked questions

Related notices

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