In short, yes.
In order for the IRS to levy your wages or bank accounts to pay a tax liability they must give your written notice of their Intent to Levy by either personally delivering it to you, leaving it at your home, or sending it by certified mail to your last known address. Practically speaking, 99% of my clients receive their levy notice by certified mail.
This notice must be given at least 30 days prior to any seizure by the IRS. And the letter must give you notice of the tax periods the IRS is trying to collect for and an explanation of the levy process, your collection alternatives, and your right to an appeal.
Since you have an opportunity to appeal, this can help give you a little more time to get things together and work out a settlement with the IRS for your tax liability. As you can see, the amount you owe the IRS is not a factor in whether they can levy against you or not.
Just in case you’re interested in some “lighter” reading, you can check out my personal blog over at http://www.TrippAtkins.com. There’s a lot more about me, and you can follow me on Twitter (are you twittering?).
Question: The IRS accepted an offer in compromise for my tax liability last year and I paid it in full before the end of the deadline. I received a letter that stated my offer in compromise was paid. Since then, I have filed my returns on time and kept up with my estimated payments so I wouldn’t get in any more trouble. Last week, I received an “Urgent” letter from the IRS about taxes that I owe for one of the years that was included in my offer in compromise. What do I do?
Answer: I would recommend two potential courses of action for you since your offer in compromise was accepted. First, I would send a letter to the IRS office that sent you the Urgent notice stating that their records are inaccurate and they accepted an offer in compromise for this tax year. I would also enclose a copy of the offer in compromise acceptance letter.
Next, if you continue to receive collection letters from the IRS for this tax period or others that were included in the offer in compromise, you should write a letter to the taxpayer advocate service basically telling them the same things: you had an offer in compromise accepted, you have a letter that says so, you have a letter that says you paid the offer in compromise in full and you would like the taxpayer advocate to help you to get the IRS to correct their records.
A lot of times, the letters are automated, so it may be that the IRS records are just in limbo and have not been updated yet. So if you continue to receive letters, you should definitely take action so the IRS doesn’t accidentally levy your wages or take some other collection action that could be harmful to you.
Hello Everyone. I just wanted to let you know that if you have tried to contact me via the “contact us form” recently, I have not received your e-mail. There was a glitch on my end with the program set-up and none of the e-mails were being received. I fixed the problem this morning, so if you still have a question, please do not hesitate to send the e-mail again. Thanks and I’m sorry for the mess up!
I have added a new page so that you may contact us more easily if you have a specific question you would like to see addressed on this blog as well as if you would like more information about retaining Tripp Atkins to assist you with your IRS or other legal issue. You can visit the AtkinsSC Contact Page by clicking the link or look at the bottom of future posts for the contact form.
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This week we rang in the new year. Hopefully, 2008 will prove to be a profitable and joyous year for everyone. As a new feature on this blog, we are going to add a weekly wrap-up post featuring the week’s top articles and sometimes we will preview what we have coming down the pipe over the weekend or the next week.
This week we had a new article on the independent contractor/employee relationship and what to do if you have been classified as an independent contractor when you are really an employee.
We also got back to the basics and briefly hit on some of options you have available in your "arsenal" when dealing with the IRS on your back taxes. These options include the offer in compromise, installment agreement, and uncollectable status.
And we sort of broke out and discussed something a little different - keeping up with your taxes on your home businesses. A lot of times people feel like since they didn’t make a lot of money or since they were working from home rather than an office they do not have to pay taxes.