IRS

[Taxing Matters]

I will also believe you that the standard deduction is also included, although that is not how I remember it from the last few people I had that got garnished.

IRC § 6334(d)(2) makes it clear that the standard deduction is part of the computation and that part of the Code has not been changed in decades. I issued wage levies frequently when I was a revenue officer for the IRS (which was some years ago now ) and computed the exempt amounts for all of them, so I am very familiar with the computation under the law prior to the December change.

However, I currently have several clients with garnishments on their SS Retirement benefits and its 25% on all of them.

Perhaps you can double check the amounts actually being taken and what the pre-levy amount of the benefits were to verify that it is 25% as you believe it to be because I would be extremely surprised if that is actually the case. All my clients that came to me with Social Security offsets through the Federal Levy Payment System (FLPS), which is the way Social Security levies are done unless actual hand prepared levies are served, have had 15% of their benefits attached. Indeed, I’m looking at the letter from Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (which is the agency that handles the levy offsets under the FLPS, which includes SSA offsets) for one client right now where the benefit amount before the offset is $1,346 and the amount offset is $201.90. When I do the math, $201.90/$1346.00 = 0.15 (15%). The IRS on its web site also tells you the amount is 15%. See that here:
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/social-security-benefits-eligible-for-the-federal-payment-levy-program

I see nothing that references attaching 25% of Social Security to collect federal taxes owed. A revenue officer in theory could attach 25%, but that would be highly unusual. If a revenue officer is going to go through the trouble to do the hand levies, he or she is going to attach the maximum amount possible, not limit it to 25%. If the levies were done by hand by a revenue officer, you would know it. It would look distinctly different than what you see generated by computer for the FLPS offsets and a new levy would arrive every month. With the creation of the FLPS, such hand levies by revenue officers are now very rare (and they weren't real common even before that).

 

[LdiJ]

IRC § 6334(d)(2) makes it clear that the standard deduction is part of the computation and that part of the Code has not been changed in decades. I issued wage levies frequently when I was a revenue officer for the IRS (which was some years ago now ) and computed the exempt amounts for all of them, so I am very familiar with the computation under the law prior to the December change.



Perhaps you can double check the amounts actually being taken and what the pre-levy amount of the benefits were to verify that it is 25% as you believe it to be because I would be extremely surprised if that is actually the case. All my clients that came to me with Social Security offsets through the Federal Levy Payment System (FLPS), which is the way Social Security levies are done unless actual hand prepared levies are served, have had 15% of their benefits attached. Indeed, I’m looking at the letter from Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (which is the agency that handles the levy offsets under the FLPS, which includes SSA offsets) for one client right now where the benefit amount before the offset is $1,346 and the amount offset is $201.90. When I do the math, $201.90/$1346.00 = 0.15 (15%). The IRS on its web site also tells you the amount is 15%. See that here:
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/social-security-benefits-eligible-for-the-federal-payment-levy-program

I see nothing that references attaching 25% of Social Security to collect federal taxes owed. A revenue officer in theory could attach 25%, but that would be highly unusual. If a revenue officer is going to go through the trouble to do the hand levies, he or she is going to attach the maximum amount possible, not limit it to 25%. If the levies were done by hand by a revenue officer, you would know it. It would look distinctly different than what you see generated by computer for the FLPS offsets and a new levy would arrive every month. With the creation of the FLPS, such hand levies by revenue officers are now very rare (and they weren't real common even before that).

I personally have never seen a hand levy so I do understand what you mean about that.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I personally have never seen a hand levy so I do understand what you mean about that.

In the days prior to the wide spread use of PCs and and the internet all revenue officer levies were done by hand. The Automated Collection System (ACS) used computers for their levies, however. So when I started as a revenue officer, I typed up each levy on one of those old style forms that had carbon sheets between each copy to make the necessary 3 copies of the form (one for the person holding the taxpayer property/income, one for the taxpayer, and one for my file), signed them, and mailed them. We had one of the IBM selectric III typewriters that used to be standard equipment in almost any business or government office. I had to do all the computations myself for the amounts owed to put on the levy, too (though there was some computer help for that). It was a time intensive task. I would batch my levies and do a bunch all on one day every two weeks or so to make it more efficient, but it still took significant time to crank out each levy.

Later on revenue officers got laptop computers and now most of their levies are automated, too, ultimately routing through the same system that ACS uses. Most every notice of lien is now done through computer, too. That saves revenue officers a ton of time over what I had to do. So today, seeing a hand prepared levy is pretty rare.

But a few levies still have to be hand done, and a Social Security levy that does not go through the FLPS would be one of them, since that kind of levy requires the personal approval of an agency official several levels higher than the revenue officer. I did those for a few taxpayers, mostly tax protestors, and they took a huge amount of work. Given that doing levies by hand now is much less common for revenue officers, I can well imagine how burdensome they would find that process today.