Our promise

What we are

A decoder. IRS and state tax notices are form letters — each one has a code, a known reason for existing, a printed deadline structure, and a published process behind it. We read the letter you received, match it to the official record of what that letter type means, and explain it in plain language: what it is, what it claims, every date that matters, what your options are, and when your situation is bigger than a decoder.

What we will never do

• Never calculate your tax. We report amounts exactly as printed on your notice and tell you what to check them against. Whether the IRS's math is right is a question for your records.
• Never tell you whether to agree. A CP2000 prints three options. Choosing one is a judgment about your own records that no tool should make for you.
• Never promise outcomes. Penalty abatement exists. Payment plans exist. Offers in Compromise exist. Whether any applies to you is the IRS's decision, and anyone who promises otherwise is selling something.
• Never invent what your letter doesn't say. Every finding cites the place in your document it came from. When your document is silent, the decode says “not stated — confirm with the IRS,” because a calm truth beats a confident guess.
• Never keep your document. Read once, in memory, discarded. Never stored, never sold, never used to train anything.

Whose side we're on

We never take money from the institutions we critique. No government contracts, no referral fees from tax-resolution firms, no selling your panic to lead buyers. Our revenue is the $48 Response Pack — and money never changes what the tool tells you. Free and paid users get the identical analysis; payment only unlocks paperwork artifacts.

When you need more than us

Some situations exceed a decoder, and we say so on the page rather than letting you find out later: significant disputed amounts, multiple years, business complexity, hardship, possible fraud. For those, the real doors are Low Income Taxpayer Clinics (free representation if income-eligible), the Taxpayer Advocate Service (877-777-4778, for hardship and stuck cases), and credentialed CPAs and Enrolled Agents you can verify in the IRS preparer directory.

The fine print, plainly

NoticeKey is not a law firm, not a CPA firm, and not enrolled to practice before the IRS. Everything here is information, not advice. Our notice explanations paraphrase official IRS and state sources, each cited and dated on the page — and the printed text of your own notice always controls.