It is really important to read the notices that you receive from the Internal Revenue Service! Clients come through my door and have no clue where their cases because they do not open their IRS mail. In addition, they miss out on important appeal deadlines and can no longer exercise their rights to fair tax collection under the law. I am going to go over one specific IRS Notice, the IRS LT11, and how it can stop the pending IRS Levy if you respond to it (or cause devastating harm if you ignore it).
The IRS LT11 (“Letter 11”) is the Notice of Intent to Levy by the IRS but more importantly, it is also a notice of your rights to a hearing. If you cannot be bothered to read the entire notice, then you can just read the first two pages, which takes no longer than a couple minutes to read. All the information you need is on the first two pages of the IRS LT11.
The first page of IRS LT11 looks like this:
“A” shows the IRS notice type (“LT 11”), the IRS notice date, the recipient taxpayer’s Social Security number, the case reference number, and the IRS contact number.
“B” shows the recipient taxpayer’s name and mailing address.
“C” is the purpose of the IRS Notice. Here, it is informing the taxpayer of the its intent to levy and the taxpayer’s right to a hearing.
“D” is the breakdown of the amount of tax due by the taxpayer.
The first page of the LT 11 gives you important information about the tax due and the action that the IRS (and you) can take to resolve the outstanding amount.
Now, to see what you can do about the taxes, flip over to the second page:
“E” gives asks for payment and gives instructions on how to pay. The IRS takes an opportunity here to threaten the taxpayer with a levy if no payment is received.
“F” provides information on how to appeal and request a Collection Due Process hearing with IRS Form 12153. It also gives a deadline to send the appeal request.
THIS PART OF THE IRS LT11 IS MOST IMPORTANT TO THE TAXPAYER AND WHEN IGNORED, IS WHY MANY TAXPAYERS LOSE THEIR APPEAL RIGHTS AND GET LEVIED BY THE IRS.
When the IRS receives a timely request from the taxpayer, all IRS collection activity stops as to the tax periods on the treat to levy. This includes any levies or seizure of assets by the IRS. However, IRS collection activity continues for any older tax periods on which the appeal rights have expired.
Thus, by taking a few minutes to read and respond to the IRS LT11, you can block the IRS from issuing a levy and seizing your assets. You need to submit the Form 12153 to stop the levy and I will cover the Form 12153 in my next blog post.
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