QUESTION:
A question submitted recently was: I’ve received a Final Notice of Intent to Levy from the IRS. I know a levy is a bad thing, but, the IRS has to leave me money to live on, right?
ANSWER:
First of all, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day! You are correct, a levy against your wages is a bad thing and can be very detrimental to your living situation. The IRS does leave you some money to live on, but in most circumstances there is not enough money left each month to pay all of the necessary expenses that the average family faces including: groceries, electricity, house payments, and more. To give you an idea of what you are facing in the levy, a single taxpayer who is paid weekly and claims three exemptions (including the taxpayer) will have $299.04 exempt from levy. That means the IRS will take all of this taxpayer’s pay check except $299.04. That’s around $1,200.00 per month left to pay all of your bills. A married taxpayer who files a joint return, is paid biweekly, and claims two exemptions (including the taxpayer) will have only $673.08 exempt from IRS levy. That leaves only $1,346 per month for living expenses. You don’t have to let the IRS levy your wages. I can help you work with the IRS to resolve your tax problem and prevent an IRS levy.
[...] wrote a recent post about how an IRS levy does not leave very much money for you to live on. After a client comes to me with a levy or [...]