Tool 8: Collection Emergency Checklist

If money has been levied or a collection deadline may be close:

• Identify the issuing office and phone number from the levy or notice
• Gather the actual levy and notice history for each tax and period. Check whether a prior CDP notice offered hearing rights and whether a statutory exception allows a post-levy hearing. CP504 does not guarantee another warning.
• Check the printed hearing deadline immediately. If timely CDP rights are available, use current Form 12153 and the hearing-request address on the notice; keep proof of timely submission. If late, promptly check equivalent-hearing eligibility and its different protections.
• Complete Form 433-F with bank statements, pay stubs, and expense documentation
• Identify the release ground: hardship, installment agreement, exempt property, procedural defect, or overcollection
• Get the bank's or employer's levy department fax number
• Call; state the request in one sentence; name the ground; give the figures; ask what is needed; ask for the release to be faxed; read back what was agreed; record name, ID, and time
• If refused, ask for a manager and the reason. Consider TAS assistance for qualifying hardship or CAP review under the current procedures. These requests do not replace a timely CDP request or automatically extend a deadline.
• Confirm with the bank or employer that the release arrived
• Send a three-sentence confirmation letter
• Do not close accounts, move money, write checks on frozen funds, or stop filing

Official notice sources

IRS CP504 instructions and Publication 1660: collection appeal rights and levy exceptions. Follow current instructions and the deadline on your actual notice.