On the paper
Identify the year whose refund is held and the separate year or years the notice says are missing.
Two different years are in play, and the notice keeps them apart. The refund being held belongs to a year you did file. The problem belongs to a year you did not. Reading the notice as though it concerns one year is what sends people to the wrong records.
Find the date printed on your notice or letter. The paper notice and the current official IRS instructions control, even where this page differs.
Where this notice comes from
This notice is where the filing side and the refund side of an account meet. The IRS holds money it owes for one year against the possibility that it is owed money for another.
If the missing returns turn out to produce refunds of their own, the whole picture can reverse. If they produce balances, the held refund is likely to be applied to them.
Filing the missing years is the only step that resolves either possibility, which is why the notice asks for returns rather than for payment.
If no return arrives, the IRS may eventually compute the missing year itself from the information returns it holds. That computation allows no deductions or credits the taxpayer would have claimed, so it generally produces a larger balance than the return would have.
General next steps
- Write down both sets of years: the refund year, and each year the IRS says is unfiled.
- File the missing returns, or establish that none was required for those years.
- Keep the notice with the filing confirmations, because the refund is released against those years rather than against this notice.
Timing
The IRS page for CP88, checked September 10, 2026, gives no general period and refers to the due date on the notice. It states that you need do nothing right now if you filed within the past eight weeks. The date printed on the notice controls; do not calculate a deadline from this page.
What CP88 does not mean
CP88 does not mean the refund is forfeited. It is held, not taken, and it moves once the filing question is answered. It also does not mean the IRS has computed a balance for the missing years, because it cannot until a return exists or it prepares a substitute.
What this page cannot tell you
This page cannot tell you whether the missing years will produce a balance or a refund, or when a held refund will be released.
Matters involving unfiled returns
This letter concerns a missing return. Read Matters involving unfiled returns.
Official sources
If anything on this page differs from your notice or from current IRS instructions, follow the notice and the IRS.
Common questions
Will the held refund be applied to the missing years?
If the missing returns produce a balance, the IRS generally applies an overpayment to outstanding federal tax before releasing anything. That application arrives as its own notice.
I filed the missing return last month.
The IRS states that you do not have to do anything right now if you filed within the past eight weeks. Keep the filing confirmation while processing catches up.
How long will the refund be held?
The hold runs until the filing question is answered. Filing the missing returns, or establishing that none was required, is what moves it; nothing on this notice sets an outside date.
What if no return was required for those years?
Then the answer is an explanation rather than a return. The notice gives the contact route, and the explanation should name the year and the reason no filing requirement applied.