Why I dread the holidays in this business

I hate this time of year.

Not the holidays. I mean what happens during them.

This is the stretch when the IRS or the FTB can hit a bank account with a levy, right in the middle of the season. And nobody calls to tell you first.

You find out while buying groceries. The card does not go through. You check the account, and the money is gone.

I have seen it happen time and time again, year after year.

So when someone tells me, “I will deal with it in January,”

I understand it. I avoided my own tax problem for years. But I also know what the next seven weeks can do.

Here is what most people do not know:

• Why a final notice dated in mid-November runs out in mid-December 

• The 30-day window that comes before an IRS levy, and the one request that uses it 

• How long the bank holds your money after an IRS levy: 21 days 

• How long you get when it is the FTB: 10 calendar days 

• Why the source of the money in that account can matter, and why you have to speak up inside the window 

   

Now look at what waiting costs.

Before a levy, you have choices.

After one, you are asking for your own money back on a short clock, and nobody can promise you get it.

A Tax Triage finds out what the government says you owe, which notice you are holding, and how close you are to a levy. Diagnose first. Resolve second. 

Start at TaxDebtTriage.com. 

Or call me directly at 909-570-1103.

To your survival,

Carlos “Card Declined” Samaniego, EA, NTPI Fellow
The Tax Debt Detective
TaxDebtConsultant.com
909-570-1103

P.S. Seven weeks are left in the year. If you have a letter that says “Final Notice” or “Intent to Levy,” the date printed on it is your deadline, not January.