A wage garnishment is legal procedure by which the IRS seizes a taxpayer’s income directly from the taxpayer’s employer. Wage garnishments occur only against W-2 wage earners and are continuous in effect. Therefore the IRS does not have to re-issue a wage levy in order garnish every paycheck of an employee. wage garnishment usually takes up to 85% of an employee’s paycheck. Self employed people (who earn 1099s) can also be levied, however the IRS is required to re-issue a levy notice prior to every single payment of income for self employed people.

IRS wage garnishments can literally lead to life and death situations for taxpayers. The IRS can seize so much money out of a taxpayer’s paycheck that a taxpayer may not be able to pay for housing, food, transportation and medication. As such, stopping an IRS wage garnishment is almost always a top priority. In stopping a wage garnishment, there short term fixes and there are long term fixes. In the short term, a taxpayer can have a wage levy stopped by promising to pay the IRS in full with borrowed funds from family, friends or other legitimate sources. Another short term fix can occur when a taxpayer is placed on an installment arrangement with the IRS. The long term solutions for resolving a wage levy include completing missing tax returns, submitting an offer in compromise, enforcing statutes of limitations on the IRS, and filing for bankruptcy. Different types of tax problems will require different types of solutions in resolving a wage garnishment.

When you are ready to discuss your wage garnishment tax problems, call us to speak with a friendly and helpful member of the team. We are glad to help, so our office today!