IRS Letter 556: Your Protest or Correspondence Was Received

What This Letter Means

Letter 556 confirms the IRS received your protest, correspondence, or request for an interview. Its full title is Acknowledgement of Protests, Correspondence, and Requests for Interviews. Examination units send it when you write in after a statutory notice of deficiency has been issued and the IRS doesn't call you to acknowledge it.

Your submission goes to a reviewer. The reviewer may send the case back to the examination group to consider your new information.

Letter 556-A is the employment tax version. It's used after a Notice of Employment Tax Determination (Letter 3523).

The Most Important Point

Reconsideration does not stop the Tax Court clock. The deadline on your notice of deficiency keeps running while the IRS looks at your letter. That deadline is generally 90 days from the date of the notice, or 150 days if it was addressed to you outside the United States. Contacting the Taxpayer Advocate Service doesn't extend it either.

If the deadline passes with no petition and no agreement, the IRS assesses the tax.

What to Do

• Find your notice of deficiency. The last day to petition the Tax Court is printed on it.
• If the IRS hasn't resolved your case well before that date, file the petition. Filing preserves your right to have the Tax Court decide the case.
• If your protest doesn't meet the requirements in Publication 5 for referral to Appeals, the reviewer should explain what's missing.
• If you agree with the deficiency, sign the waiver form that came with the notice and return it.
• If you disagree but want to stop interest from building, you can make a deposit under section 6603 with a written statement designating it as a deposit.

Deadlines

Letter 556 creates no new deadline. The deadline that matters is the one on your notice of deficiency. Don't let an acknowledgment letter lull you into missing it.

If you received Letter 556 and your Tax Court deadline is approaching, call us at (813) 229-7100.