This article is intended to describe the IRS wage levy or IRS wage garnishment process. Hopefully, in explaining the mechanism by which the IRS enforces collection or back taxes you will be empowered to do something to prevent it from happening, or at the very least understanding that you can take action to achieve a release.
The IRS usually follows a well trodden route which finally arrives at the implementation of an IRS wage levy. There is of course a presupposition that you, as a tax payer have been assessed and have somehow failed to pay or to indicate to the IRS that you intend to pay. It is almost certainly this lack of contact that has led the IRS to pursue you down this course of action. This should not be a surprise to you. You will probably have received a number of letters from the IRS demanding payment and you may well have received telephone calls or messages too.
The sincerest advice is to contact the IRS as soon as you get a letter or message or at the very least seek help from the services of an IRS tax attorney. Failure to do so will land you further into IRS trouble. However, if you do not reply to any of the correspondence then the final letter you receive will be entitled “Notice Of Intent To Levy”. This letter sets out the position of the IRS and the action they intend to take if you do not respond to this letter within 30 days of receiving it.
If you have allowed the 30 days to elapse the next step the IRS will take is to evaluate your financial situation and determine how they should go about collecting the IRS back taxes as quickly as possible. Note, at this point they do not concern themselves with your ability to pay and maintain your lifestyle and as a consequence you may find yourself in severe financial difficulty if you continue to ignore them.
If you are a salaried worked the wage garnishment route is almost certainly the one they will attempt to pursue first as this is probably the most straightforward. They will then contact your employer and compel them to withhold a potentially significant percentage of your wage or salary in order to settle IRS debt. Your employer will have no choice but to comply.
In summary, in order to undertake an IRS wage levy the IRS have to be able to demonstrate that they have issued you with a tax assessment and a demand for payment, that you have not settled that outstanding tax liability and that following their “Notice Of Intent To Levy” letter you allowed 30 days to lapse before contact them in respect of payment.
Remember, the IRS would prefer not to go down the IRS wage levy route. Instead they would much rather come to a negotiated position with you. Pursuing a wage levy is expensive. So simply put, do your best to contact the IRS early in the process. Do not think that if you ignore them the problems will somehow go away. It won’t. And consider employing the services of an IRS tax attorney to assist you in minimising your IRS back taxes.