IRS Form 668-W(c) is the Notice of Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income that the IRS sends to your employer, directing them to withhold part of every paycheck and send it to the Treasury until your tax debt is paid or the IRS formally releases the levy.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6331 – Levy and Distraint Unlike a one-time bank levy that grabs a single account balance, a wage levy is continuous: it attaches to every subsequent paycheck from the moment your employer receives it. The form packet also includes a worksheet your employer uses to calculate how much pay is protected, so you aren’t left with nothing. Both you and your employer have specific legal obligations the moment the notice arrives, and the window to act on the most important one is short.
Return the Statement of Dependents Within Three Days
When your employer gets Form 668-W, they must hand you a copy of the Statement of Dependents and Filing Status that comes with it. You have three days to complete and return it.2Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Manual 5.11.5 – Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income Miss that deadline and your employer is required to calculate your exempt amount as though you are married filing separately with zero dependents, which is the lowest exemption available.3Internal Revenue Service. What if I Get a Levy Against One of My Employees, Vendors, Customers or Other Third Parties
You can submit the statement late and your employer will adjust the exemption going forward, but any excess that was already sent to the IRS does not come back to you. Fill it out and return it immediately. This is the single most time-sensitive step on your side of the process.
How Much the IRS Will Take
Federal law guarantees a minimum exemption to cover basic living expenses. Your employer finds that amount in the tables in IRS Publication 1494, which the IRS mails with the levy packet.4Internal Revenue Service. Information About Wage Levies The current tables were revised in December 2025 and apply to levies collected in 2026.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1494 – Tables for Figuring Amount Exempt from Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income The exempt amount depends on your filing status, number of dependents, and pay period.
The math: your employer starts with your take-home pay after mandatory deductions like federal and state income tax withholding, Social Security, and Medicare. They look up the exempt amount on the Publication 1494 table matching your pay period and the status and dependents you claimed. Everything above the exempt figure goes to the IRS. If your biweekly take-home is $2,000 and the table shows $1,250 exempt, your employer sends $750 to the IRS that pay period.
Bonuses and Commissions
For levy purposes, wages include bonuses, commissions, and similar compensation. The exempt amount from Publication 1494 is calculated once per pay period, not per payment. If your regular paycheck in that period already covers the exempt amount, a bonus paid separately in the same period is levied in full.4Internal Revenue Service. Information About Wage Levies If you have a year-end bonus or commission check coming and you are under an active wage levy, the IRS will likely take all of it unless you resolve the levy first.
Child Support Already in Place
If a court ordered child support before your employer received the levy, the support order takes priority. The IRS will release from the levy the amount needed to comply with the support order, which is also written into the federal statute listing property exempt from levy.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6334 – Property Exempt from Levy4Internal Revenue Service. Information About Wage Levies You cannot double-count a child: if support is factored into your exempt amount, you cannot also claim that child as a dependent on the levy exemption worksheet. If your employer did not account for a support order, call the IRS at the phone number on the Form 668-W.
Check Whether the IRS Followed the Rules
The IRS cannot levy your wages without first assessing the tax, sending a Notice and Demand for Payment, and waiting at least 10 days.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6331 – Levy and Distraint More importantly, at least 30 days before issuing the levy the IRS must send you a Final Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing, which usually arrives as Letter 1058 or LT11.7Taxpayer Advocate Service. Notice of Intent to Levy
If you never received that final notice, the levy may be improper, and that is one of the strongest grounds to challenge it. Look through your mail and your IRS correspondence before you assume the levy is valid.
How to Get the Levy Released
Federal law requires the IRS to release a wage levy under several specific circumstances.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6343 – Authority to Release Levy and Return Property You can pursue whichever route fits your situation. The levy continues until the IRS sends your employer a formal release on Form 668-D; your employer cannot stop withholding on its own.3Internal Revenue Service. What if I Get a Levy Against One of My Employees, Vendors, Customers or Other Third Parties
Pay the Balance in Full
Once the debt is paid, the IRS must release the levy. If you can borrow from family, use savings, or get a personal loan whose cost is lower than the ongoing drain of the levy, full payment ends the problem immediately.
Set Up an Installment Agreement
The IRS must release a levy when you enter an installment agreement under Section 6159. Streamlined installment agreements are available to individuals who owe less than $50,000 and can pay within 72 months, and they do not require detailed financial statements.9Taxpayer Advocate Service. Installment Agreements For larger balances the IRS can approve a non-streamlined agreement, but no agreement can extend beyond the 10-year collection statute.10Internal Revenue Service. IRM 5.14.2 – Partial Payment Installment Agreements and the Collection Statute You will need to stay current on future filings and payments or the agreement defaults and the levy resumes.
Request an Economic Hardship Release
If the levy prevents you from meeting basic living expenses like rent, utilities, and food, the IRS is required to release it. Call the number on the levy notice and be ready to document your finances; the IRS will usually ask you to complete Form 433-A, a collection information statement covering your income, expenses, and assets.11Internal Revenue Service. What if a Levy Is Causing a Hardship A hardship release stops the withholding; it does not erase the underlying debt.
Submit an Offer in Compromise
An Offer in Compromise settles the debt for less than the full balance. The IRS accepts offers when there is genuine doubt the full amount could ever be collected, or when the offered amount reflects the most the IRS could reasonably collect. The process takes months and requires application fees and partial payments, so it is not a quick fix for an active levy, but it can resolve the underlying debt entirely.
Request a Collection Due Process Hearing
The Final Notice of Intent to Levy gives you the right to request a Collection Due Process hearing by filing Form 12153 within 30 days of the notice date.12Taxpayer Advocate Service. Collection Due Process (CDP) A timely CDP request prohibits the IRS from levying in most cases and suspends the 10-year collection clock while the hearing is pending.13Internal Revenue Service. Form 12153 – Request for a Collection Due Process or Equivalent Hearing
At the hearing you can challenge whether the IRS followed proper procedures, propose an installment agreement or Offer in Compromise, or argue economic hardship. If you disagree with the outcome, you can petition the U.S. Tax Court, a right that exists only when the CDP request was timely.
Miss the 30-day window and you can still request an equivalent hearing within one year of the notice date. The equivalent hearing covers the same ground but does not stop collection, and you cannot take the result to Tax Court.14Taxpayer Advocate Service. Equivalent Hearing (Within 1 Year) Missing the 30-day deadline is one of the most consequential errors in this process.
Emergency Help From the Taxpayer Advocate Service
If you face immediate financial harm and cannot resolve the levy through normal IRS channels, the Taxpayer Advocate Service can step in. File Form 911 describing the issue and the hardship.15Internal Revenue Service. Form 911 – Request for Taxpayer Advocate Service Assistance You can submit it by mail, fax to (855) 828-2723, or email to tas.form.911.request.for.assistance@irs.gov; the IRS warns that email is not encrypted, so other methods are safer for sensitive documents. If you do not hear back within 30 days, call TAS at 877-777-4778. Taxpayers who cannot afford professional help may also qualify for a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic through the directory at irs.gov/advocate.
What Your Employer Must Do
Your employer must begin withholding from the first payroll period that ends on or after the date they received the levy, give you your copies of the form including the dependents statement, remit the withheld funds to the IRS, and continue until they receive a Form 668-D release. An employer who fails to surrender levied wages becomes personally liable for the amount that should have been turned over, plus interest at the federal underpayment rate, and an employer who refuses without reasonable cause faces an additional penalty equal to 50% of that amount, which does not reduce your tax debt.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6332 – Surrender of Property Subject to Levy
On termination: the Consumer Credit Protection Act prohibits firing an employee because earnings were garnished for a single debt. Whether that protection extends to an IRS wage levy specifically is not fully settled, because the CCPA uses the term “garnishment” rather than “levy” and the two operate under different statutes. In practice, firing someone solely over a wage levy carries significant legal risk, and most employment attorneys advise against it.
What Form 668-W Does Not Cover
Form 668-W is the mechanism for levying wages from an employer. A few related situations work differently and are worth flagging so you don’t apply the wrong rules.
Social Security benefits are not levied through Form 668-W. The IRS uses the Federal Payment Levy Program, which can take up to 15% of Social Security retirement and survivors benefits, with its own notices (CP 91 or CP 298). Supplemental Security Income is not subject to the program, and since October 2015 the IRS no longer systematically levies Social Security disability insurance benefits through it either.17Internal Revenue Service. Social Security Benefits Eligible for the Federal Payment Levy Program
Changing jobs does not solve the problem. A wage levy is served on a specific employer, so when you leave, that employer stops withholding. The underlying debt remains, and the IRS routinely serves a new levy on your next employer once it identifies the new workplace through W-2 and other reporting.
The 10-year collection statute still runs, but with caveats. The IRS generally has 10 years from the assessment date to collect, after which it can no longer pursue the debt, including through a wage levy.18Internal Revenue Service. Time IRS Can Collect Tax A timely CDP hearing pauses the clock while pending, certain installment agreements extend it, and a levy placed on future income before the statute expires can continue collecting payments after the 10-year window closes.