En esta noticia
Receiving a CP508C Notice from the IRS is one of the most serious signals the agency can send. It means that your tax debt was certified before the Department of State and that your passport is at risk of being denied, not renewed, or even revoked. It is not an empty threat: it is the formal step that can leave you unable to travel abroad.
What the CP508C Notice is
The CP508C is the notice with which the IRS informs you that it has certified your tax debt as “seriously delinquent” before the U.S. Department of State. That certification is the mechanism that enables passport restrictions.
The notice does not arrive for just any debt: it is sent when the taxpayer accumulates a debt considered seriously delinquent, which in 2026 is approximately $66,000 (an amount that is adjusted each year for inflation and includes taxes, penalties and interest).
The authority comes from the FAST Act, a 2015 law that authorized the IRS to coordinate with the Department of State the denial or revocation of passports of major debtors.
They will take away the passports of everyone who has received this notice
Once the IRS issues the CP508C and certifies the debt, the Department of State applies passport restrictions. Specifically:
- It does not issue a new passport if you are applying for one.
- It does not renew an expired or soon-to-expire passport.
- In certain cases, it may revoke an already valid passport.
In practice, the most common effect is that the taxpayer cannot apply for or renew their passport while the debt remains certified. If you are applying for one, the Department of State usually gives you a deadline (typically 90 days) to resolve the situation before denying the application.