Yes, but not directly. The IRS certifies your seriously delinquent tax debt to the State Department. The State Department, not the IRS, has the authority to deny, revoke, or limit a passport. Denial of a new passport or renewal is generally mandatory once certification is received, while revocation or limitation of an existing passport is discretionary.
For 2026, the threshold is $66,000. This page covers who gets certified, what happens next, and how to get the certification reversed. Everything here is sourced to 26 U.S.C. § 7345, 22 U.S.C. § 2714a, and current IRS guidance.
More than $66,000 in calendar year 2026. That figure is set by Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and changes each year.
Section 7345(b)(1)(B) sets a base of $50,000 and § 7345(f) indexes it for inflation. A great many websites still quote figures from 2018 or 2019. Here is the actual history, published by the IRS.
| Calendar year | Seriously delinquent tax debt threshold |
|---|---|
| 2026 | More than $66,000 |
| 2025 | More than $64,000 |
| 2024 | More than $62,000 |
| 2023 | More than $59,000 |
| 2022 | More than $55,000 |
| 2021 | More than $54,000 |
| 2020 | More than $53,000 |
| 2019 | More than $52,000 |
| 2018 | More than $51,000 |
The IRS counts assessed tax, penalties, and interest toward the total. The 2026 figure appears in Revenue Procedure 2025-32, section 4.60, and the IRS maintains a running table on its page about the revocation or denial of passports in cases of certain unpaid taxes.
Three things have to be true at once. Section 7345(b)(1) defines it as an unpaid, legally enforceable federal tax liability of an individual that:
Read the third element carefully. It is written in the alternative. A levy alone is enough. There is no requirement that both a lien and a levy exist, and pages saying otherwise are misreading the statute.
The IRS applies this to individual income taxes, trust fund recovery penalties, business taxes for which you are personally liable, and other civil penalties.
A long list, including several situations you may be able to address before certification. Section 7345(b)(2) carves out debt being paid on time under an installment agreement or an accepted offer in compromise, debt where collection is suspended because a collection due process hearing is requested or pending, and debt where an innocent spouse election or request is in play.
The IRS goes further in its published guidance and will not certify in these situations either.
Debts excluded by law:
Situations in which the IRS generally will not certify:
For several of the IRS’s discretionary exclusions, a qualifying pending request is enough to prevent certification. That is why acting before certification is far cheaper than undoing it afterward. Our overviews of IRS payment plans, the offer in compromise program, and innocent spouse relief walk through each route.
Notice CP508C, mailed to your last known address at the same time the IRS certifies the debt.
Section 7345(d) requires the Commissioner to notify you contemporaneously with the certification and to describe, in simple and nontechnical terms, your right to bring a civil action. The CP508C is that notice.
One operational detail is easy to miss. The IRS does not send a copy of the CP508C to your power of attorney. If your accountant or attorney is handling the case and you are not receiving mail at your last known address, you may not learn of the certification until you encounter a passport problem.
Before referring an existing passport for revocation, the IRS sends Letter 6152 asking you to call and resolve the account. That letter generally gives you 30 days to contact the IRS if it is mailed to a U.S. address, or 90 days if mailed to an address outside the United States. It is your last practical warning, though State, not the IRS, ultimately decides whether to revoke the passport.
The State Department holds your application open for 90 days instead of rejecting it immediately.
The IRS describes it this way: the State Department issues a letter and holds the application open for 90 days from the date of that letter, giving you time to enter a satisfactory payment arrangement, pay the debt in full, or resolve an erroneous certification. If you do not make satisfactory arrangements within those 90 days, the application is denied and closed, and you have to submit a new application.
Ordinarily, denial is mandatory. Under 22 U.S.C. § 2714a(e)(1)(A), on receiving a certification, the Secretary of State “shall not issue” a passport, subject only to an emergency and humanitarian exception in subparagraph (B).
They can, but it takes an extra step, and it is discretionary rather than automatic.
Section 2714a(e)(2)(A) says the Secretary of State “may revoke” a passport previously issued. Per the IRS’s Passport Program manual, the IRS may ask the State Department to revoke an existing passport based on the facts and circumstances of the case, but State has sole authority to make the revocation decision and may act on its own initiative.
Certification does not automatically make an existing passport unusable. You can generally continue using it unless and until the State Department takes action to revoke or limit it.
If you are already overseas, the State Department may limit your passport or issue a limited-validity passport to allow you to return to the United States.
Under 22 U.S.C. § 2714a(e)(2)(B), if the Secretary of State decides to revoke an existing passport, the Secretary may first limit the passport to return travel to the United States or issue a limited passport that permits only return travel. A return passport is discretionary, not guaranteed. A full-validity passport generally will not be available while the certification remains in effect.
The IRS must notify the State Department when a certification is reversed because the debt has been fully paid or becomes legally unenforceable, the taxpayer enters an installment agreement or has an offer in compromise accepted, a qualifying innocent spouse election or request is made, or the certification is found to be erroneous. Section 7345(c) sets the applicable deadlines.
| What resolves it | Deadline for the IRS to notify | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Full payment, or the debt becomes legally unenforceable | By the date required to issue a certificate of release of lien under 6325(a) | 7345(c)(2)(A) |
| Innocent spouse election or request under 6015 | Within 30 days of the election or request | 7345(c)(2)(B) |
| Installment agreement entered into, or offer in compromise accepted | Within 30 days | 7345(c)(2)(C) |
| Certification found to be erroneous | As soon as practicable after the finding | 7345(c)(2)(D) |
In practice, the IRS reverses certification and notifies the State Department within 30 days after the taxpayer satisfies the applicable requirements for reversal, then sends you Notice CP508R.
Two limits are worth knowing before you plan around them. A partial payment that merely reduces the balance below $66,000 does not, by itself, result in decertification. Neither does the expiration of collection statutes in some years. To qualify for decertification, you generally must fully resolve all certified tax debt or otherwise meet one of the statutory or IRS-recognized reversal criteria.
Our page on how to get your passport back after IRS certification covers each reversal route in detail.
The IRS will expedite, and it can cut the 30 days down to 9 to 16 days.
You need international travel within the next 45 days, or to live abroad, and you need an open passport application or renewal request already on file. The IRS then asks for two things. The first is proof of travel, which can be a flight itinerary, hotel reservation, cruise ticket, or international car insurance showing the traveler and approximate date. The second is a copy of the State Department letter denying your application or revoking your passport, dated within the last 90 days.
Expedited handling is only available if a passport application is pending. Someone who has been certified but has not applied has nothing for the IRS to expedite.
Yes, in either federal district court or the Tax Court, and you do not have to exhaust anything with the IRS first.
Section 7345(e)(1) allows a civil action against the United States in district court, or against the Commissioner in the Tax Court, to determine whether the certification was erroneous or whether the Commissioner failed to reverse it. Whichever court first acquires jurisdiction has sole jurisdiction, so the choice of forum is a real decision.
Understand the ceiling on the remedy. Under § 7345(e)(2), if the court finds the certification erroneous, it may order the Secretary to notify the State Department of that. The IRS notes that the law gives the court no authority to release a lien or levy or to award money damages in a certification suit.
If certification is causing immediate hardship or you have an urgent passport need, the Taxpayer Advocate Service may be able to help address the case with the IRS.
The whole system is built around a threshold and a set of pending-request exceptions. Getting a qualifying installment agreement or offer on file before the IRS certifies generally keeps your passport out of the conversation.
Ayar Law handles IRS collection matters in Michigan and throughout the United States. Call (248) 262-3400 to request a case review, or contact us through our website.
This page is general information about federal tax collection procedures. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The certification threshold is adjusted annually, and IRS procedures change. Outcomes depend on the facts of each case, and prior results do not predict future outcomes. Speak with a licensed tax attorney about your own situation before relying on any option described here.
