Wage Garnishment Release
IRS
Not only can the IRS wipe your bank accounts, they can also go after your wages. If you are a W-2 employee or even a 1099 contractor, the IRS can garnish your income without a formal court order. And while there are provisions in place with exempt a certain portion of your wages from garnishment, the change can be unsustainable. For 2023, if you are a single person, the IRS will take everything and leave you with $266.35 each week. If the IRS is garnishing your wages, please schedule a consultation today.
Questions?
If I have kids and/or dependents, can the IRS still leave me with only $266.35/week?
No, the IRS will allow you more money for each additional person in your household. For instance, a family of 5 that files joint returns will have significantly more exempt from levy. Employers will typically supply taxpayers with an exemption worksheet upon receipt of a garnishment notice from the IRS. However, some employers will base the exemptions off of those claimed by the taxpayer for their wages (although they will usually adjust the exemption amount if you can substantiate why your W-2 exemptions may not reflect the true amount of dependents in your household).
When does the IRS stop garnishing my wages?
A wage garnishment will stay in place until the past due tax debt is paid in full or otherwise resolved. Some taxpayers are content to leave a garnishment in place if they can continue to afford their other bills. Collections agents at IRS may leave a garnishment in place for years if they cannot get a taxpayer to enter into a voluntary agreement or collection efforts have taken too long. If you think your garnishment should have been removed, please contact us today for help.
My employer says they won’t stop sending the IRS my garnished wages even though the IRS released the levy.
Just like banks, employers are not always sure how to correctly respond to legal orders from the IRS to garnish wages. A good agent at the IRS will contact the employer to explain how the levy should be processed, but most are too overburdened to do so, leaving employers to interpret the legal order as best they can. Sometimes the IRS will modify a garnishment, and the employer misinterprets the amounts. If your employer is threatening to fire you over a bank levy, it could violate 15 USC 1674. Please contact us if you have any questions on how your employer should handle your wage garnishment.