IRS Publication 1494 is the table the IRS gives your employer to figure out how much of your wages are shielded from a levy each pay period. You find your filing status, cross-reference your number of dependents against your pay frequency, and the number in the grid is what your employer must pay you. Everything above that, after mandatory tax withholding, goes to the IRS until the debt is satisfied or the levy is released.
How to Read the Publication 1494 Tables
The publication is organized by filing status. Find the table that matches how you file your federal return, then locate your number of dependents in the left column. Move across to the column for your pay frequency, and the dollar figure at that intersection is your exempt amount per paycheck.
Pay frequency columns cover weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, monthly, and daily schedules. If your pay schedule doesn’t fit any column cleanly, IRS regulations require your employer to use the column that produces roughly the same total annual exemption the weekly calculation would.
Check your first pay stub after the levy takes effect against the table. If the amount your employer left you is lower than the table says, either the Statement of Dependents didn’t reach payroll in time or there’s a math error worth flagging right away.
The Formula Behind the Tables
The numbers in Publication 1494 come from Section 6334(d) of the Internal Revenue Code. Because personal exemptions have been zero since 2018, the calculation now uses a substitute figure of $5,300 per dependent (inflation-adjusted annually) in place of the old personal exemption deduction.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6334 – Property Exempt from Levy Three steps produce the annual figure:
- Start with the standard deduction for your filing status. For 2026: $16,100 for Single or Married Filing Separately, $32,200 for Married Filing Jointly, and $24,150 for Head of Household.2Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
- Add $5,300 for each dependent you list on your Statement of Dependents and Filing Status.
- Divide the total by the number of pay periods in a year: 52 weekly, 26 biweekly, 24 semimonthly, or 12 monthly.
A few common results for 2026:
- Single, no dependents, biweekly: $16,100 ÷ 26 = $619.23 per paycheck.
- Married Filing Jointly, two dependents, biweekly: ($32,200 + $10,600) ÷ 26 = $1,646.15 per paycheck.
- Single, three dependents, weekly: ($16,100 + $15,900) ÷ 52 = $615.38 per paycheck.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1494
The figures are lean by design. Everything above the exempt amount, after mandatory withholding for federal and state income tax, Social Security, and Medicare, is sent to the IRS.
Filling Out the Statement of Dependents and Filing Status
Your employer receives a wage levy on Form 668-W, Notice of Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income, and is required to hand you Parts 2 through 5 immediately.4Internal Revenue Service. Form 668-W – Notice of Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income Part 3, the Statement of Dependents and Filing Status, is what drives the table lookup. You need three pieces of information to complete it.
The first is filing status. Check the box that matches your federal return: Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, Head of Household, or Qualifying Surviving Spouse. This selects which standard deduction the IRS applies.
The second is your dependent count. List every person you can claim as a dependent on your tax return who isn’t already listed on another active levy. Each one adds $5,300 to your annual exempt amount.
The third is pay frequency. Your employer knows this, but confirm it, because the per-paycheck exempt amount depends on it.
Pull your most recent return before you fill this out so filing status and dependents match what you actually reported. Mismatches slow things down and invite scrutiny.
The Three-Day Deadline and the Default
You have three days to complete and return the Statement of Dependents to your employer. Miss it and your exempt amount drops to the statutory default: Married Filing Separately with zero dependents.5Internal Revenue Service. What if I Get a Levy Against One of My Employees, Vendors, Customers or Other Third Parties For a biweekly worker, that’s roughly $619 per paycheck regardless of your real household. A married-filing-jointly parent of two who forgets to return the form could lose over a thousand dollars per paycheck that they were entitled to keep.
Extra Exempt Amount for Age 65+ or Blindness
Publication 1494 includes supplemental tables for taxpayers who are 65 or older or legally blind. For 2025, the additional standard deduction was $1,600 per qualifying condition for married filers and $2,000 for unmarried filers.6Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 551, Standard Deduction These amounts are inflation-adjusted each year, so the 2026 tables may run slightly higher.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1494
You can qualify for more than one addition. A 68-year-old unmarried worker who is also legally blind gets both the age adjustment and the blindness adjustment. To claim these, note them on your Statement of Dependents. Skip that step and your employer has no way to know you qualify.
How Bonuses and Commissions Are Treated
The IRS counts bonuses, commissions, and fees as wages for levy purposes. If a bonus is folded into your regular paycheck, the Publication 1494 exempt amount applies to the combined total and the IRS takes the rest. If the bonus is issued as a separate check in the same pay period, the entire bonus goes to the IRS, because your exempt amount was already used up on the regular paycheck.7Internal Revenue Service. Information About Wage Levies There is no mechanism to spread the exempt amount across multiple payments in one period, which hits commission-heavy earners hardest.
Voluntary payroll deductions that were in place before the levy, like health insurance premiums, existing 401(k) contributions, and union dues, are generally honored. You cannot increase those deductions after the levy is served to shrink what the IRS receives; the IRS will instruct payroll to disregard the increase.8Internal Revenue Service. Notice of Levy in Special Cases
Updating Your Exempt Amount During an Active Levy
If your household changes while the levy is active, a baby arrives, you get married, a dependent moves out, you can file a new Statement of Dependents and Filing Status with your employer at any time. Payroll then recalculates the exempt amount using the updated information.4Internal Revenue Service. Form 668-W – Notice of Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income
Submit a new statement at the start of each calendar year, too. The Publication 1494 tables are reissued annually to reflect inflation adjustments to the standard deduction and per-dependent figure. If you don’t send in a fresh statement, your employer keeps using the numbers that were current when the levy was first served, and you lose the annual bump.
When the Exempt Amount Still Isn’t Enough
Publication 1494 is designed to leave you the statutory minimum, not a livable amount. If the levy prevents you from paying rent, utilities, food, or medical costs, the IRS is required to release all or part of it on economic hardship grounds. Call the phone number on your levy notice, be ready to walk through your income, expenses, and assets with documentation, and have your employer’s payroll fax number available so the release can be transmitted quickly.9Internal Revenue Service. What if a Levy Is Causing a Hardship A hardship release stops the wage seizure while you work out an installment agreement or other resolution; it does not erase the underlying debt. The IRS also cannot condition hardship relief on your filing missing returns or meeting other collection demands.10Internal Revenue Service. Serving Levies, Releasing Levies and Returning Property