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The IRS Automated Collection Service (ACS)
Purpose of the System
IRS employees can cross-reference these items between tax returns and individuals, corporations, partnerships, trusts, banks, employers, and individual taxpayers based on Federal Identification Numbers and Social Security Numbers.
Basically, the ACS system and its representatives maintain control on almost all unpaid tax issues and non-filer cases that can be resolved on the telephone. Some cases, however, are managed by IRS Revenue Officers (RO) located in various IRS Field Offices in major cities all across the country. These ROs make personal contact with the taxpayers in their attempts to resolve tax issues that cannot be or have not been resolved by ACS. When a case has been transferred by ACS to a Field Office, then ACS releases all control over the case and transfers control to the Filed Office and the RO who is assigned the case for collection or other action.
So..........
When your employer receives a Notice of Levy in the mail, you might get a bit of a reprieve and a bit of extra time, but at some point you'll begin to suffer from that IRS Wage Levy. And it can get very expensive very quickly.
IRS can take over 80% of your take-home pay from every single paycheck once your employer receives that notice.
When your paycheck is levied, you can talk to IRS on the telephone in an effort to get them to release that levy. Automated Collection Service (ACS) is the IRS group that will most likely handle your phone call. ACS employees who deal with the general public have been trained (by IRS) to attempt to resolve unpaid tax issues with people who call them.
These ACS representatives are friendly and well-trained. However, they also are tasked with the responsibility of collecting unpaid taxes from everyone who comes their way. ACS employees are located in several locations across the country and are all reached with the same telephone number. If you call ACS and speak to a rep and later call ACS on a following occasion, you will not be able to speak to the same person you spoke to previously. In fact, you may not even reach the same location (city) you reached earlier.
Due to this nature of the ACS system, no written notes or records are kept by ACS employees. Although you may be asked to fax or mail in documents to them, those documents will be used to make notes in your file on the ACS computer system; your paperwork will then typically be shredded. During your call and immediately afterward, the ACS rep who handled your call will make notes in your computer file so that future ACS reps will have access to that information.
ACS reps will request that you provide them with a lot of personal and financial information, including much or possibly all of the following:
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Name(s) |
Copies of 3 months pay stubs |
Housing & utility costs |
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Address |
Copies of 3 months bank statements |
Medical expenses |
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Social Security Numbers |
All income sources |
Auto operating costs |
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All employers |
Child support/alimony received/paid |
Auto payments |
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All bank accounts |
Social Security/Retirement income |
Child & dependent care |
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Automobiles owned |
Payroll taxes |
Court ordered payments |
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Real estate owned |
Other pay stub deductions |
Other monthly expenses |
ACS reps will use this information to help them resolve collection cases.
Obviously, this information can help them discover sources of cash and also help them determine whether or not a taxpayer can make any monthly payments to pay off the total balance that is owed.
ACS wants to know everything you own, where your money comes from, how much money you have coming in every month, where you're spending your money every month, what you're spending it on every month, and how much of it can be paid to them. Every month.
It's that simple.
The trick is in getting them to accept as little of a monthly payment as possible.
The big trick is in getting them to release your wage levy as quickly as possible.
Lots of tricks, huh?