What is an IRS CP259 Notice?

The IRS CP259 is a Return Delinquency Notice. It is sent when the IRS expected a specific tax return from you—such as Form 940 (Employer’s Annual FUTA Tax Return) or Form 941 (Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return)—but has no record of receiving it.

Why did I receive a CP259 notice?

The IRS issues a CP259 when their records indicate you had a filing requirement but did not file. For employers, this often relates to:

• Form 940 – required annually if you paid wages subject to FUTA.

• Form 941 – required quarterly if you paid wages subject to federal income tax withholding, Social Security, or Medicare taxes.

If you filed these returns in prior periods but skipped the current one, the IRS assumes you may still have a filing obligation and sends the CP259.

What do I need to do?

Receiving a CP259 doesn’t always mean you did something wrong, but it does require action. Depending on your situation, you may need to:

• File the missing Form 940 or Form 941 if you still had employees and wages during the period.

• Confirm you have no filing requirement if your business had no payroll or closed during that period.

• Contact the IRS if you already filed but their records haven’t updated.

Ignoring a CP259 can lead to additional IRS follow-ups, potential penalties, or notices of proposed assessments.

How TaxBandits helps with CP259 notices

When you receive a CP259 notice related to Form 940 or Form 941:

• You can upload the notice into TaxBandits under the correct payer to keep it securely stored.

• TaxBandits provides guidance on what the notice means and next steps to resolve it—whether that’s filing the return, updating your filing requirement, or contacting the IRS.

• Since we already support e-filing of both Form 940 and Form 941, you can address the delinquency notice quickly from the same platform.

There’s no cost for uploading and managing IRS notices. We provide this service to ensure you’re not left guessing when compliance issues arise.