How the Internal Revenue Service Works Part 3

Automated Collection Service (ACS)

After a few letters and attempts to collect an amount due to the IRS, Customer Service will move the file to the Automated Collection Service. This happens on an automated basis. If the amounts are high enough, the case will be sent to a real live Revenue Officer for collection. ACS begins a series of collection efforts to collect the tax. This group does not exist to help you, to assist you, to listen to you, or to understand why you cannot pay.

Picture ACS as a giant robot with access to everybody’s credit report, employer pay records, Social Security records, motor vehicle registrations, and other public data. The robot constantly compares and matches employment and banking information against the Social Security Numbers and Employer Identification Numbers of people and entities with unpaid taxes. While it is busy searching out where you work and where you bank, it is busy sending out a series of notices warning you that if you do not resolve the issue, ACS will seize your paycheck, your money in the bank, your Social Security Check, your pension, and anything else it can find.

When the required notice period ends, your life is about to change. ACS sends out thousands if not hundreds of thousands of levies every month to employers and financial institutions. When your employer gets notification of your tax problem, chances are good you may eventually be fired, so be prepared for that. During the levy, your pay will be reduced to next to nothing, and the IRS gets the rest. Yes they can do that.

Yes, they can grab your bank account too. ACS goes one better. They send both levies at the same time. This is the shotgun levy. Levy everything in sight. Tough as ACS is, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Tomorrow- The Revenue Officer- the Tax Cop.