What Is a Levy?

A levy is a forcible taking of property. So in the context of a collections case when the government levies you it takes your property in the satisfaction of your tax debt. The government can levy a variety of different things. They can levy bank accounts, they can levy brokerage accounts, they can levy retirement accounts in certain cases, anything that is a large cash asset they can take from it. So levies are the most common thing that the government uses in collection cases because it’s easy, it’s going after low-hanging fruit, it’s going after liquid assets and they’re very quick to execute. You don’t even need a person to execute them, you can have a computer do it so that’s what a levy is and you should be aware of them and take appropriate steps to mitigate them in the course of your collection.