Bank Levies

An IRS levy is the actual action taken by the IRS to collect taxes. For example, the IRS can issue a bank levy to obtain your cash in savings and checking accounts. Or the IRS can levy your wages or accounts receivable. The person, company, or institution that is served the levy must comply or face their own IRS problems. The additional paperwork this person, company or institution is faced with to comply with the levy, usually causes the taxpayer's relationship to suffer with the person being levied. Levies should be avoided at all costs and are usually the result of poor or no communication with the IRS. 

When the IRS levies a bank account, the levy is only for the particular day the levy is received by the bank. The bank is required to remove whatever amount is available in your account that day (up to the amount of the IRS levy) and send it to the IRS in 21 days unless notified otherwise by the IRS. This type of levy does not effect any future deposits made into your bank account unless the IRS issues another Bank Account Levy. 

An IRS Wage Levy is different. Wage levies are filed with your employer and remain in effect until the IRS notifies the employer that the wage levy has been released. Most wage levies take so much money from the taxpayer's paycheck that the taxpayer doesn't have enough money to live on.

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