When people call about this
What this usually looks like
- A bank account was frozen or emptied without warning
- Part of your paycheck is being taken before you see it
- A Notice of Federal Tax Lien turned up on your credit report
- You owe more than you could pay in any realistic timeframe
How it actually works
The part that decides the outcome
A lien and a levy are different animals, and the difference matters. A lien is a claim that attaches to what you own the moment tax is assessed and demand goes unpaid. It is silent until it is recorded, and recording is what puts it in front of your other creditors. A levy is the seizure itself — the notice that empties the account or reaches the employer.
Collection cases do not start with negotiation. They start with the account transcripts, because the transcripts decide what is actually true: what was assessed, when, whether the assessment was based on a return you filed or one the IRS made up for you, and how much time is left on the collection clock. Only then is it worth choosing between an installment agreement, hardship status, the statute running out, bankruptcy, or an offer.
Most of the leverage in a collection case comes from long-term planning rather than from a single call. Once representation is on file, the correspondence and the phone contact come to this office.
The engagement
How we work a case like this
1. Pull the record
Account transcripts for every year, so the conversation starts from what the IRS believes rather than what the letters say.
2. Stabilize
Get collection action paused where the facts support it, and get any unfiled years moving.
3. Choose the remedy
Agreement, hardship, statute, bankruptcy or settlement — chosen against your actual financial picture, not a script.
Related matters
These rarely arrive on their own
Tax problems overlap. The pages below are the ones that most often belong in the same file as this one.
Unfiled & Delinquent Returns
Collection cases stall until the missing years are filed. This is almost always the first move.
Open — Unfiled & Delinquent ReturnsOffers in Compromise
When the balance exceeds anything you could pay, settlement becomes the question.
Open — Offers in CompromiseTax Penalties & Abatement
Penalties and interest are often the larger half of the balance, and they are contestable.
Open — Tax Penalties & AbatementThis page is general information, not advice for a specific situation. Available procedures depend on the actual record and on current law, which changes. Confirm before acting, or ask this office to review your own facts.
