If you have an IRS notice of levy in your hand, you have roughly 30 days from the date printed on it to act before the IRS can start taking money from your bank account or paycheck. What to do when you get a notice of levy comes down to three things in that window: confirm the notice is real, contact the IRS to check the balance and your options, and file a written request for a Collection Due Process hearing if you disagree with the levy or need time to negotiate. Doing those things pauses enforcement. Doing nothing lets it start.
A levy is the actual taking of property, not just a claim against it. When the IRS levies a bank account, the money leaves. When it levies wages, your employer sends part of every paycheck to the IRS until the debt is resolved.1Internal Revenue Service. What Is a Levy The final notice you received had to arrive at least 30 days before any levy can take effect, and that 30-day window is the whole point of the notice.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 6330 – Notice and Opportunity for Hearing Before Levy
Confirm the Notice Is Real Before Anything Else
IRS impersonation is common, so verify the letter before you call any number on it. Real IRS notices arrive by U.S. mail. The IRS does not initiate contact by email, text message, or social media to demand payment.3Internal Revenue Service. Got a Letter or Notice from the IRS Here Are the Next Steps Look in the upper right corner for a CP or LTR number, then search that number on irs.gov to see what a genuine notice with that code should say.4Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your IRS Notice or Letter
Do not call a phone number printed on a letter you cannot verify. Instead, use the number on your most recent tax return or on irs.gov. Anyone demanding immediate payment by gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency is not the IRS. Hang up.
Use the 30-Day Window
Once you are confident the notice is legitimate, treat the 30 days as firm. A few things belong at the top of the list.
Call the IRS at the number on the notice and confirm the balance. Sometimes a payment was not applied or a return was not processed, and the amount is wrong. Catching that early can end the problem before it starts.
Pull together your financial records. Any serious conversation about a payment plan, an offer in compromise, or a hardship claim requires documentation of your income, expenses, assets, and debts. The IRS wants specifics, not estimates.
File Form 12153 to request a Collection Due Process hearing if you disagree with the levy or need time to work out an alternative. This is the single most protective step available inside the 30-day window, and it is covered in detail below.
Consider bringing in a tax attorney or enrolled agent who works on IRS collections. They negotiate on your behalf and often see options a first-time levy recipient will miss. Hourly rates for tax attorneys in collection disputes typically run around $250 to $400.
Request a Collection Due Process Hearing
A timely Collection Due Process (CDP) request does two things at once. It gets you a hearing before an independent IRS Appeals officer, and it suspends levy activity while the hearing and any appeal are pending.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 6330 – Notice and Opportunity for Hearing Before Levy That pause alone can buy months of breathing room.
You file the request on IRS Form 12153 and state your reasons for disagreeing. Grounds the IRS will consider include:5Internal Revenue Service. Collection Due Process (CDP) FAQs
- The tax was already paid, or the amount the IRS shows is wrong.
- The IRS made a procedural error, such as failing to send required notices.
- You want to propose an installment agreement or offer in compromise instead of levy.
- The levy would cause economic hardship that outweighs the government’s interest in collecting.
- The collection statute of limitations has expired.
If the Appeals officer rules against you, you can petition the U.S. Tax Court for judicial review. That right to go to court only exists if you filed the CDP request inside the original 30-day window. Miss the window and you can still ask for what the IRS calls an equivalent hearing, but collection is not paused during that hearing, and you cannot take the result to Tax Court.
If a Bank Levy Has Already Hit
When the IRS levies a bank account, your bank freezes the funds the moment the notice arrives and holds them for 21 calendar days before sending the money to the IRS.6Internal Revenue Service. Information about Bank Levies That 21-day hold exists so you can contact the IRS, fix errors, or negotiate a release.7eCFR. 26 CFR 301.6332-3 – The 21-Day Holding Period Applicable to Property Held by Banks Use it. Every day you wait is a day closer to the funds leaving.
A bank levy is a one-time snapshot of what is in the account when the bank gets the notice. Deposits made the next day are not captured by the same levy, though the IRS can issue another one later.
Joint accounts are the hardest situation. The IRS can levy a joint account even when only one holder owes the debt, treating both holders as equal owners of the funds. A non-liable co-owner can request a partial release by proving which deposits were theirs. Bank statements showing the source of deposits are the key evidence, and separating that money has to happen inside the 21-day hold.
If a Wage Levy Has Started
A wage levy is not a one-time grab. It attaches to your paycheck and keeps taking until the debt is paid, the levy is released, or the collection period expires.8Internal Revenue Service. IRS Levy Programs Toolkit Your employer must begin withholding after at least one full pay period from when they receive the notice.9Internal Revenue Service. What if I Get a Levy Against One of My Employees, Vendors, Customers or Other Third Parties
The IRS does not take the whole paycheck. An exempt amount is calculated using your filing status and number of dependents, from tables published each year in IRS Publication 1494. For 2026, a single filer with three dependents paid weekly keeps $615.38 per pay period. A married-filing-jointly taxpayer paid biweekly with two dependents keeps $1,646.16. Filers over 65 or who are blind receive additional exempt amounts.10Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1494 – Tables for Figuring Amount Exempt from Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income Everything above the exempt amount goes to the IRS. To stop or reduce a wage levy you have to work out an alternative with the IRS: full payment, an installment agreement, an offer in compromise, or currently not collectible status.
Resolve the Debt Behind the Levy
Stopping enforcement is the immediate concern. The debt is the other one, and the IRS offers several paths depending on what you can afford.
Full Payment or an Installment Agreement
Paying in full releases the levy and stops penalties and interest from growing. When that isn’t realistic, an installment agreement lets you pay over time. For balances of $50,000 or less, you can often set up a payment plan online at irs.gov. Larger balances usually require a financial disclosure showing what you can afford each month.
Offer in Compromise
An offer in compromise settles the debt for less than the full amount. The IRS weighs your income, expenses, asset equity, and ability to pay. The agency rejects a large majority of offers, but when the numbers genuinely show you cannot pay in full before the collection statute expires, it is a legitimate route. Filing an offer while a levy is pending can sometimes lead the IRS to release or hold the levy during evaluation.
Currently Not Collectible Status
If paying anything would leave you unable to cover basic living expenses, ask the IRS to place your account in currently not collectible status. The IRS reviews your income, expenses, and assets before granting it. You still owe the debt, interest and penalties keep accruing, and for debts above $10,000 the IRS will typically file a federal tax lien. But active collection stops, subject to periodic review of your finances.
What the IRS Cannot Take
Federal law puts some property off-limits regardless of what you owe.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 6334 – Property Exempt from Levy Protected items include:
- Necessary clothing and schoolbooks for you and your family.
- Household items and personal effects up to $6,250 in total value, including fuel, furniture, and provisions.
- Tools of your trade up to $3,125 in value.
- Unemployment benefits under any federal or state unemployment compensation law.
- Workers’ compensation payments.
- Child support required by a court judgment entered before the levy date.
- Certain government pensions and disability payments, including service-connected VA disability benefits and railroad retirement benefits.
- A minimum amount of wages, calculated as described above.
If the IRS takes something that should be exempt, raise it immediately in your hearing or contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service.
If You Miss the 30-Day Deadline
Ignoring the notice is the worst response. Once the 30 days pass without a hearing request, the IRS moves forward. Bank accounts get frozen and drained. Wages get garnished every pay period. In extreme cases the IRS seizes and sells physical property like vehicles or real estate. Penalties and interest keep growing on the balance the whole time, and the federal tax lien that usually accompanies a levy becomes a public record that makes credit, mortgages, and car loans harder to get.
You also lose the automatic collection pause a timely CDP hearing would have given you, and you lose the right to take an Appeals decision to Tax Court. By the time most people accept that they should have responded, the best options have already closed.
The IRS generally has 10 years from assessment to collect. That sounds like a long time, but if the agency has escalated to a levy notice, it has no reason to wait you out. The only way to slow the process is to engage with it before the deadline passes: call the number on the notice, file Form 12153, or get a tax professional involved now.