IRS Garnishing 75% for Back-Taxes

One of my friends pulled me aside yesterday and asked me what I knew about tax law... "Why," I asked. It seems his dad hasn't paid the IRS in about five years, and now they've started garnishing 75% of his paycheck. (Now he's only taking home $200/bi-week). Now I didn't think that was possible. I thought the Fed cap was 25%, and further restricted by our state cap of 15%. So I came home, googled, and found out the caps don't apply to Fed/State taxes. Rather the IRS has some table, and they let you keep $X amount of your pay, based on your filing status and # of exemptions you can claim.

Anyway I found some info on th IRS Collection Appeals Program (CAP), which states something about an Offer in Compromise, which may let you setup installment payment arragements to stop the garnishment .... Has anyone done that, or know how to go about doing it? Is it just a matter of calling the IRS and asking them to setup a payment plan? Are they usually good about stopping the garnishment, or is that rare? Any help is appreciated.

Ok, since I went through this I want to correct a few items. The IRS garnish wages in this way. take the standard deduction, and your exemption. (if you are married I believe that is taken into account, I am single) divide that by the pay period. Weekly biweekly etc. There is no limit to the garnishment, Well up to satisfying the tax. Generally the IRS will work out payment plan, understanding that NO body can live on monies less than the Poverty level.

"Everything you just wrote was pure garbage."  You are as ignorant as you are niave.  They did the same thing to me.  I became homeless because the IRS took over 75% of my paycheck for 2.5 months.  I lost my apartment b/c I couldn't pay the rent, lost my job b/c I was living in my pickup and didn't have a place to shower & couldn't afford the gas to drive to work. Lost my medical ins that covered the drugs (over $450/ mo) I need everyday to function.  I had to eat at a soup kitchen, sell practically everything I owned (furniture, vehicles, power tools, cameras, TVs, appliances, you name it), and now that I don't have wages to steal, they are seizing the pasture land where my horses live.  They are going to make me lose an acreage that took me 13 years to acquire and is worth a quarter million to satisfy a $14,000 tax bill that started out as the tax on $2300 of unreported income in the year 2000.  What? Maybe 32% of $2300 = $736 of tax?  They are now seizing $14,000!!!  Oh yeah, I almost forgot... my wife divorced me in the process and I became estranged from my 3 teenaged kids.  Now I'm being threatened with being charged with Willful Failure to File Return.  Big deal... that's only 1 year in prison...

"Everything you just wrote was pure garbage."  You are as ignorant as you are niave.  They did the same thing to me.  I became homeless because the IRS took over 75% of my paycheck for 2.5 months.  I lost my apartment b/c I couldn't pay the rent, lost my job b/c I was living in my pickup and didn't have a place to shower & couldn't afford the gas to drive to work. Lost my medical ins that covered the drugs (over $450/ mo) I need everyday to function.  I had to eat at a soup kitchen, sell practically everything I owned (furniture, vehicles, power tools, cameras, TVs, appliances, you name it), and now that I don't have wages to steal, they are seizing the pasture land where my horses live.  They are going to make me lose an acreage that took me 13 years to acquire and is worth a quarter million to satisfy a $14,000 tax bill that started out as the tax on $2300 of unreported income in the year 2000.  What? Maybe 32% of $2300 = $736 of tax?  They are now seizing $14,000!!!  Oh yeah, I almost forgot... my wife divorced me in the process and I became estranged from my 3 teenaged kids.  Now I'm being threatened with being charged with Willful Failure to File Return.  Big deal... that's only 1 year in prison...

"Everything you just wrote was pure garbage."  You are as ignorant as you are niave.  They did the same thing to me.  I became homeless because the IRS took over 75% of my paycheck for 2.5 months.  I lost my apartment b/c I couldn't pay the rent, lost my job b/c I was living in my pickup and didn't have a place to shower & couldn't afford the gas to drive to work. Lost my medical ins that covered the drugs (over $450/ mo) I need everyday to function.  I had to eat at a soup kitchen, sell practically everything I owned (furniture, vehicles, power tools, cameras, TVs, appliances, you name it), and now that I don't have wages to steal, they are seizing the pasture land where my horses live.  They are going to make me lose an acreage that took me 13 years to acquire and is worth a quarter million to satisfy a $14,000 tax bill that started out as the tax on $2300 of unreported income in the year 2000.  What? Maybe 32% of $2300 = $736 of tax?  They are now seizing $14,000!!!  Oh yeah, I almost forgot... my wife divorced me in the process and I became estranged from my 3 teenaged kids.  Now I'm being threatened with being charged with Willful Failure to File Return.  Big deal... that's only 1 year in prison...

"Everything you just wrote was pure garbage."  You are as ignorant as you are niave.  They did the same thing to me.  I became homeless because the IRS took over 75% of my paycheck for 2.5 months.  I lost my apartment b/c I couldn't pay the rent, lost my job b/c I was living in my pickup and didn't have a place to shower & couldn't afford the gas to drive to work. Lost my medical ins that covered the drugs (over $450/ mo) I need everyday to function.  I had to eat at a soup kitchen, sell practically everything I owned (furniture, vehicles, power tools, cameras, TVs, appliances, you name it), and now that I don't have wages to steal, they are seizing the pasture land where my horses live.  They are going to make me lose an acreage that took me 13 years to acquire and is worth a quarter million to satisfy a $14,000 tax bill that started out as the tax on $2300 of unreported income in the year 2000.  What? Maybe 32% of $2300 = $736 of tax?  They are now seizing $14,000!!!  Oh yeah, I almost forgot... my wife divorced me in the process and I became estranged from my 3 teenaged kids.  Now I'm being threatened with being charged with Willful Failure to File Return.  Big deal... that's only 1 year in prison...

irs sucks cock there all crooks .arm your self now the time to take control of the goverment is coming!!!

irs sucks cock there all crooks .arm your self now the time to take control of the goverment is coming!!!

I can speak on this from experience and the situation I am in. If you owe back taxes, call the IRS and set up an installment plan to pay back. They will work with you.

The problem I am having is getting the IRS computers/system to talk with our financial payment system. I am attempting to set up payroll deduction where an X amount comes out of my paycheck every 15 days.

The IRS should know who to do this but each time I call them, I get a different representative who gives another story.

The first time I called the IRS to set up a payroll deduction, the representative said that it would be no problem as I was already a Federal employee and there would be nothing else I needed to do.

After one month, I saw that the IRS payment had not started coming out of my paycheck. So I call IRS to see what the problem was. (They had sent me a non-payment notice and demanded full payment). This time, I speak to a different representative and he tells me that my employer screwed up. I asked, how so? They said that they did not deduct the payment. I asked, "why am I being faulted, I called you to see what was wrong?" 

This second IRS representative agreed that we can try again. Right there on the phone with him, he was unable to enter in my SSAN into there system and admitted that was probably the problem. He put me on hold because be was not able to imput my SSAN into their system. Since he could not do so, he told me that I would have to contact my financial center and let them know that they (the IRS) wants to do a payroll deduction.

I thought this was bull. Because they (the IRS) has a glitch in their system, I am supposed to cover for their mistake and flawed computer system.

At present, I have received another letter from them demanding full payment of back taxes. Now I have to call them back to explain to them that I have been the one initiating the resolution process and each time their representative can't get it right.

It is funny that when it comes time to ganish you, their computers seems to work.

But all and all, you can call the IRS and set up a re-payment plan. It is painless. They will assess how much you think you can pay each month and you can send them a check or attempt as I have, set it up as an automatic payroll deduction. 

Do not pay these scammers who claim they can reduce your taxes or solve your tax problems. They are lairs and you will be out of a lot of money.

A simple phone call to IRS will do. Do not wait until the IRS starts garish proceedings on you. You will feel a lot better after you talk with them.

Personally: I think our tax system is a scam and is the biggest ruiners of American lives.

first this is my bad for not filing my taxes on time . but hey we have a tax cheat in charge of the irs.

the S.C. irs has just started a wage levy on me and they took 100% of my wages .

with three days notice , I am in the process of resolving my unpaid tax issues.

It was my fault I did not file taxes for 2006 to 2010 . (a long story contract employee ,1099 form)

My accountant that i finally could afford to hire did my taxes and all i owed was $4200.00 in total

for those years  , and has been dealing with the irs in good faith. the agent in charge at the irs

seems to have taken this personal , called my employer on a wed. with paycheck payout on friday.

my accountant  tried to call irs agent to get a hold on my garnishment , she left numerous phone

messages to ask the agent to call her back for 2 days , and never got a return call .

they took the whole check. i get payed bi-weekly . so for the next 2 weeks  i have no food money , my rent will become past due , along with my car payment ,cell phone ,water bill,gas heat bill,

car payment, happy happy joy joy   I wish I owed the money to a couple of mafia loan sharks

I would have gotten better treatment .