If the IRS disallowed your ERC claim, you generally have two years from the date on the disallowance notice to file a refund suit. This tool converts the date on your letter into your deadline.
The two-year window comes from IRC §6532(a)(1): a refund suit under §7422 must be filed within two years of the date the IRS mails the notice of claim disallowance — for ERC claims, that is usually a Letter 105-C (full disallowance) or 106-C (partial). The clock runs from the notice date, not from when you received it, appealed it, or hired anyone.
Your deadline
This is an estimate for education, not legal advice, and it does not account for a signed Form 907 extension or unusual mailing-date issues. The controlling date is the mailing date of the notice. Verify your deadline with an attorney before relying on it.
Three things people get wrong about this deadline
Appealing to IRS Appeals does not pause the two years. You can request administrative reconsideration of a disallowance, and it is often worth doing — but §6532(a)(4) is explicit that reconsideration does not extend the period. Businesses have watched their suit rights expire while an appeal sat in a queue.
The window can be extended only one way: Form 907. A written agreement with the IRS on Form 907 extends the deadline by consent. If you do not have a signed one, assume the two years is hard.
After the window closes, the refund claim is generally gone. The money does not become collectible some other way; the United States has to be sued within the period it consented to be sued. This is why we treat expiring windows as a docket-management item, not a marketing line — our firm currently manages one of the larger ERC disallowance dockets in the country, with $160M+ in ERC claims handled.
Litigate, appeal, or let it go? The honest decision framework
The whole decision hinges on three inputs: the size of the claim, the strength of the eligibility position (gross-receipts decline cases are arithmetic; suspension cases turn on the orders), and time remaining. A six-figure claim with a clean gross-receipts decline is the classic candidate for suit in district court or the Court of Federal Claims — that fact pattern is essentially found money with a filing deadline. A small claim with a shaky suspension theory may not justify the cost of litigation, and saying so plainly is part of the analysis. If you want that read on your letter, start here or book a free 15-minute call.
Related: what Letter 105-C means · our ERC litigation docket study · ERC claim denied — what now
By Sam Brotman, JD, LLM, MBA — managing attorney, Brotman Law. Last updated August 29, 2026.
