Unlike private creditors, the IRS garnishes wages without a courtroom. Your employer receives the levy and must comply. What you keep isn't a percentage — it's a fixed exempt amount based on your filing status and dependents, and everything above it goes to the IRS. For most people that's the majority of the check.
Why wage levies hurt worse
- They're continuous — one levy attaches to every future paycheck until released.
- The exempt amount is brutal — designed around subsistence, not your actual bills.
- Your employer knows — the privacy cost is real, and so is the workplace awkwardness.
- Bonuses and commissions — often levied in full.
Getting it released
- Negotiate a resolution — an installment agreement or offer in compromise in place is the standard path to release; the IRS prefers cooperation to garnishment.
- Prove hardship — if the levy leaves you unable to cover necessary living expenses, release is mandatory, not discretionary.
- Fix the compliance gap — unfiled returns block every deal; we bring them current fast (see Non-Filed Returns).
- Appeal — procedural rights exist at every step, and invoking them pauses the machine.
Most garnishments we see could have been prevented by one phone call made earlier. The second-best time for that call is today.