Levies, Liens & Garnishments

As part of the collection process, the IRS and other taxing agencies use tax levies, liens and garnishments more than any other means to collect what is owed, or what they think is owed to them.

Too often these techniques are implemented on a taxpayer in error. A taxpayer may have made a tax payment or had withholding reported on a w-2 only to find out the hard way later that their payments had been posted to the wrong account or remain in limbo at the IRS. Learning the hard way usually occurs after you bank account has been levied and you have to fight to get you money back and correct their mistake. A lien can also be filed on your property or a garnishment issued on your wages. These can be very stressful and time consuming to rectify.

Our firm specializes in resolving collection issues such as these, and we know that time is of the essence once something like this happens. The longer the money is out of your account the worse your chances are of ever getting it back.

Even if you did owe the money, it is still possible to get it back as long as you cooperate and enter into an arrangement to make affordable payments or show them that you don’t have the ability to pay those taxes and go into an “uncollectible status”. Every situation is different and we know the correct approach to serve our clients the best.

In defense of the IRS and other taxing agencies, they normally do notify the taxpayer of the pending collection action more than once. Normally there is a series of letters getting increasingly more threatening. These letters are normally ignored, not understood, or possibly sent to the wrong address. It is easy to put your head in the sand and ignore these, but this just makes it worse in the long run and normally will cause you to lose sleep.

If you get a threatening letter from the IRS or don’t understand a letter you’ve received, please don’t hesitate to contact our office and let us help.