By Pedro Bianco
En esta noticia
By law, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is required to inform the Department of State of cases of taxpayers with a tax debt considered serious, and that agency can then deny the issuance or renewal of the document, and even revoke an existing one.
Now, this does not happen for just any debt or from one day to the next: there is an amount at which it is triggered, a series of prior steps and several exceptions that protect the taxpayer.
From what amount does the seriously delinquent debt that puts your passport at risk become active
The trigger is what the IRS calls seriously delinquent tax debt. It is not just any outstanding balance: it is a legally enforceable federal debt that exceeds a threshold that is adjusted for inflation each year. For 2026, that figure is more than 66,000 dollars, including taxes, penalties and interest.
In addition to the amount, other conditions must be met: that the IRS has filed a federal lien notice and all administrative remedies have been exhausted, or that it has issued a levy.
IRS and the Department of State can deny and revoke passports: how the process works
When a debt meets those conditions, the IRS certifies it to the Department of State and sends the taxpayer notice CP508C, by regular mail, to the taxpayer’s last known address. One detail to keep in mind: the IRS does not send a copy of that notice to the taxpayer’s legal representative (power of attorney), so the notification goes directly to the person.
From that certification, the Department of State, as a rule, does not issue a new passport and can deny a new application or a renewal. But it can also go further and revoke one that is already valid.
The revocation of a valid passport is not automatic nor is it triggered by a closed list of causes. The IRS can ask the Department of State to revoke the document of any taxpayer whose debt has already been certified as seriously delinquent, but those referrals, according to the agency itself, “are determined based on the facts and circumstances of each case”.
Exceptions: debts that are not certified
Owing taxes does not automatically mean losing your passport. The IRS does not certify, among others, the following situations:
- Debts being paid on time through an approved installment agreement.
- Debts covered by an accepted offer in compromise.
- Debts with a timely requested Collection Due Process (CDP) hearing regarding a levy.
- Cases with a pending innocent spouse relief request.
- Child support and FBAR penalties, which are outside this regime.
Nor is a person certified who has an account classified as “currently not collectible” due to economic hardship, a pending payment plan request or offer, a bankruptcy filing, the status of victim of identity theft for tax purposes, or someone who is in a federally declared disaster area.