Why Did the Tax Agency Levy My Bank Account?
I had a client call me last week and said, “I’d been working with the government agency and with the EDD … why would they levy my bank account?” It’s really important to understand what side of the agency you’re on. Each taxing agency has an assessment side and a collection side. The collections department is the department that’s going to levy your bank account or file a lien against you for any money that is owed. If you receive a notice stating that you owe money, it is really important to go back and contact that collections department to set up a payment plan to get a hold on the account to make sure that you understand what they need to prevent a lien or levy. On the other side is the assessment side. If you’re working with the collection side, generally speaking, they’re not updating the assessment side and vice versa. The assessment side is determining the liability is working through the audit or the returns or the documentation. Most of the time, you need to be working with both sides, whether it’s the IRS or any state agency.
