Wage garnishment and levy release support

We confirm the specific balance and tax period behind the levy or garnishment, pull current IRS (or state) transcripts the same day, and identify which release ground actually fits: full payment, documented hardship, or a pending resolution option. We gather the financial documentation that ground requires, most often a current income and expense statement and proof of essential living costs, and prepare the release request for our enrolled agent or CPA partner to submit. Once a release issues, we confirm it actually reaches the employer's payroll department or the correct bank branch. What is not included: the release decision itself, which is the IRS's or state's call, and any longer-term case work beyond the immediate levy, which we scope separately once the emergency is handled.

The case starts with a same-day intake: what the levy notice says, which employer or bank received it, and how many pay cycles or business days are left before money actually moves. We pull transcripts immediately rather than working from the mailed notice alone, since the notice can be days or weeks old by the time it reaches you. With current numbers in hand, we identify the release ground that fits and assemble the documentation it needs on the fastest realistic timeline. The finished request goes to our enrolled agent or CPA partner, who files it and communicates with the IRS or state directly. Once a release is issued, we do not consider the case closed until the employer or bank confirms receipt, since a release that never reaches payroll changes nothing.

Anyone who just discovered a smaller paycheck than expected and traced it to an IRS or state wage levy. A business owner who found a chunk of the company's operating account frozen by a bank levy. Someone already working on an installment agreement or offer in compromise who got levied anyway because the paperwork had not caught up with the IRS's collection system yet. It also fits a business with payroll tax exposure where an employee's individual levy and the company's own Trust Fund Recovery Penalty risk are tangled together and need to be worked as related, not separate, problems.

A wage levy calculated against the wrong pay frequency, taking more from each check than Publication 1494's exemption table actually allows. A bank levy that hit a payroll or operating account the business needed within days, where a hardship argument has to move faster than a normal case timeline. A release request built on an outdated balance because nobody pulled a current transcript before filing it, which gets the request bounced back and costs another pay cycle. An installment agreement that was verbally approved but never updated in the IRS's system before the levy went out anyway, which needs the agreement's actual status confirmed and documented, not just referenced. A levy that continued after a first release request because the release never reached the actual payroll processor, only a corporate HR mailbox.

A hardship-based release is not won by describing hardship, it is won by documenting it against the IRS's own financial standards for allowable living expenses, which vary by county and household size. We build the income and expense picture the way the IRS actually reviews it, not the way a taxpayer would describe their own budget, since a request that looks reasonable to the person filing it can still fail if it does not match the specific line items the IRS's own collection financial standards use. Getting this right the first time is usually the difference between a release in days and a request bounced back for missing detail.

We pull transcripts through the IRS Transcript Delivery System the same day a case opens, so the release request is built on current numbers rather than an assumption. Financial documentation is organized and cross-checked against your QuickBooks Online or Xero file where the levy involves a business account, and the finished release package is prepared in Drake Tax alongside any related return work. Everything moves through the same secure client portal used for the rest of your file, so nothing about an emergency case sits somewhere you cannot see it.

Levy and garnishment release work is scoped as its own engagement because the timeline is compressed and the documentation has to be right the first time, not because the underlying work is unusually large. We quote it once we understand the specific balance, the release ground that applies, and whether a longer-term resolution needs to be built alongside the release. Because these cases move fast, we confirm the fee the same day we confirm the facts, so cost is never the reason a release request sits waiting.

A release request is only as good as the number it is built on, so every case starts with a current transcript, not a mailed notice that may already be stale. A senior reviewer checks the release ground and the supporting documentation against the specific standard the IRS or state actually applies before anything goes to our enrolled agent or CPA partner. And a case is not closed at the release, it is closed when the employer's payroll department or the bank branch confirms the levy has actually stopped.