My grandmother used to have saying about people, always telling me "It's what inside that counts." It was her way of telling young Howie to not to judge a book by its cover, that looks can be deceiving. Little did I know that one day that advice would apply to IRS collection letters. Yes, on the surface, IRS collection letters look the same, and those looks can often be very misleading. One of the biggest offenders is the IRS Notice of Intent to Levy. As part of its collection process, the IRS sends two different letters, each called a Notice of Intent to Levy. On their ... Read More
Knowing when are you at risk for the IRS to seize your house
Owing the IRS is nerve-wracking enough without having to worry about losing your house to the tax man. But are your concerns about losing the roof over your head based on reality? Are you really at risk for the IRS to take your house away to pay your tax debt? The good news is that the IRS seizes and sells very few houses - in a given year, it is less than 500 over the entire country. That's out of millions of tax debts owed. In other words, the IRS does not make putting taxpayers out on the street a top priority. For starters, the risk is low. But it does, and can ... Read More
Internal Revenue Code laws that limit the power of the IRS to levy and destroy
If you money to the IRS, you have taxpayer rights. Your rights are in the the Internal Revenue Code, which has laws that limit the power of the IRS collection division to collect, levy and destroy. An IRS collection agent cannot always do what he wants, when he wants. These laws protect you from the collection enforcement powers of the IRS. If you are facing an IRS Revenue Officer or an Automated Collection Service representative, IRS collection laws that are on your side can be golden. For when you need it, here are the most important collection laws and rights in the Internal Revenue ... Read More
Responding to an IRS Final Notice of Intent to Levy: Completing Form 12153
A certified mail slip comes in the mail, with a notation a letter awaits from you from the IRS, likely from the IRS Automated Collection Service. Or maybe an IRS Revenue Officer makes an unannounced visit to your home or work, and after introductions, hands a letter to you. This, you tell yourself, is serious. You get the letter and open it, and find that you have been served with an IRS Final Notice Notice of Intent to Levy, identified in the upper-right hand corner as LT11. Intimidating as it all may seem, you have the right to put the brakes on the IRS's desire to levy your ... Read More
IRS just sent me a final notice of intent to levy – what should I do?
You were brave enough to pick-up and open your certified mail, and there it was - an IRS Final Notice of Intent to Levy. The law is intended to avoid surprises from the IRS and protect you, and the Final Notice of Intent to Levy does just that, giving you notice in advance that they are considering sending a levy to your employer or bank or even taking your personal property or real estate. Now that you are on notice that the IRS wants to gear up its collection activities, what are your next steps? You do have rights. First, it is important to make sure you have received an actual ... Read More