Some taxpayers may need some additional relief during the COVID-19 pandemic from existing federal tax liens and IRS levies on bank accounts, wages or property. IRS describes available relief in the People First Initiative. Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) would like to provide some simple instructions for taxpayers to follow, especially in situations causing economic hardship.

Levy Releases
A levy will not be automatically released. The IRS considers a taxpayer’s request to release a levy on a case by case basis if the levy is causing an economic hardship. “Economic hardship” means the levy prevents the taxpayer from meeting basic, reasonable living expenses. Please note the IRS may ask for additional financial information to determine if a levy is causing an economic hardship before deciding to release the levy.

To request relief:

If you are working with a revenue officer, contact the revenue officer directly.

If you are not working with a revenue officer, you must call the number provided on the levy notice.
Unable to reach the IRS by phone for levy release request?

If you are unable to reach an IRS representative by phone, fax your request to (855) 796-4524. The fax should include your name, address and social security numbers (for both spouses, if you filed jointly). Also, include the name, address and fax number of the employer or bank where the levy is being processed.

Note: This fax number is only used to address emergency levy release requests. Due to current limited staffing, the IRS will not respond to other issues sent to this fax line.

Lien Certificates
The IRS is processing all electronically submitted lien certificate applications (including lien releases, discharges of property from the federal tax lien, withdrawals of the notice of federal tax lien and subordinations of the federal tax lien) normally and assigning them within 10 days:

Currently, the IRS requests all taxpayers use the E-Fax line for their ACR site (844-201-8382) for submission.
Note: Due to Coronavirus, IRS is NOT processing lien certificate applications mailed to the Advisory Consolidated Receipts (ACR) site in Florence, Kentucky.

Publication 4235, Collection Advisory Group Numbers and Addresses (PDF), has additional information on the process for submitting applications for lien certificates and on related topics.

For more information on current IRS operations, see the IRS Operations During COVID-19: Mission-critical functions continue page and the IRS Coronavirus Tax Relief and Economic Impact Payments page.

Taxpayer Advocate Service Help

TAS is open to virtually serve taxpayers who find themselves in hardship situations or dealing with IRS tax problems they’ve been unable to resolve directly with the IRS. If you cannot get a lien or levy released, after making contacts as instructed above, go to our Contact Us page and call the local number listed for your state or area.

Please understand though, that TAS cannot currently help you get any Economic Impact Payments before the IRS releases them.