IRS Garnishments

Tax garnishments are a powerful tool the IRS uses to collect from taxpayers who have not paid their tax debts. When your wages are garnished your employer will take a portion of your paycheck and send it directly to the IRS. The idea of a tax garnishment is intimidating to most Americans and often just the threat of garnishment is enough to get a delinquent taxpayer to work with the IRS to resolve their tax debt.

Fortunately, if you have received a notice that the IRS is going to garnish your wages, you have options for resolving your tax debt before the garnishment begins. If the IRS is already garnishing your wages, there are ways to work with the IRS to settle your tax debt to get the garnishment lifted.

What is a Tax Garnishment?

A tax garnishment is a legal order directing an employer to seize a portion of your wages and send them to the IRS to satisfy a tax debt. While most creditors to whom you owe money can go to court to request that your wages are garnished, the IRS does not need to get a court’s permission to begin a tax garnishment.

Most wage garnishments are a matter of public record and can appear on your credit report, but an IRS tax garnishment will not because the IRS cannot report delinquent taxpayers to the credit reporting agencies. Additionally, your employer cannot fire an employee over a first-time wage garnishment. 

Solutions for IRS Wage Garnishment Help

The IRS gives you 30 days from the Notice of Intent to Levy to file a formal appeal. The appeal temporarily stops the IRS from implementing the levy until the appeal has been resolved.

Appealing an IRS levy can be a fairly straightforward process, but the IRS is not required to reverse its decision to levy your assets. To give you the best chance of succeeding in an appeal it is often a good idea to seek the assistance of an experienced tax professional to ensure that your appeal has the best chance of succeeding. A skilled tax professional may help you find problems with the IRS’s levy process requiring it to remove the levy or assist in documenting how the levy would create a financial hardship. If you are facing an IRS tax garnishment of your wages, you should contac an expert tax resolution specialist. Sunrise Tax Resolution can help resolve your garnishment issue.