Saturday, July 18, 2009

IRS Levy At A Glance

By Anne Durrell

The IRS Levy is not the same thing as a federal tax lien, which is the IRS's authorization to seize property. The IRS Levy is the act of the seizure or property, assets or income.

The federal government is empowered to enforce the IRS Levy if you were too slow to try to work with the IRS to reach agreement. This means they can begin to garnish your wages without your consent in an attempt to recover the money you owe them.

The IRS Levy usually comes into effect when a person ignores the tax office's requests for payment of taxes you owe. It can also be enforced if you call the IRS and try to make payment arrangements on a large tax debt that are just too small to pay off the amount you owe.

If this occurs and they begin to garnish more money from your income than you expect, this could seriously leave you with not enough money to support yourself or your family. You could lose control of all your income, your assets or your property.

IRS Levy could also mean the seizure of income you receive from Social Security or disability payments or even refunded taxes.

Another reason the IRS Levy can come into effect is if you've already made a payment arrangement to try and repay your tax debt and then you miss those payments or don't stick to the payment plan you agreed to.

In addition to seizing the wages and other income, the IRS Levy may also seize bank accounts or the sale of your property.

Perhaps the easiest way to avoid an IRS Levy is to contact the government department to which you owe money and work through a reasonable payment plan that you can stick to comfortably while still paying off the debt. Once you've entered into this arrangement, be sure you keep up with your payments on time, every time.

If you are uncertain to face the prospect of an IRS Levy on your own, then consider hiring a tax lawyer to act as an intermediary. You may find a professional who has a deeper understanding of some of the most complex tax issues and may be able to refer you to the things you may not have considered.

These issues could include forms of tax relief you could be entitled to or even legal help to negotiate for an offer of compromise with the IRS.

About the Author:

0 comments:

Post a Comment