Getting a bank levy or a wage levy can be an unpleasant experience. However, there are steps you can take to keep this from happening.

Before the IRS sends a levy notice to you bank, employer or any other third party holding your assets, it will send you a letter 1058 - Final Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to A Hearing.

The letter will notify you of your unpaid taxes and that the IRS intends to levy to collect the amount you owe starting thirty days after the date of that letter. The IRS can levy your wages, bank accounts and other property.

Once you receive this letter, the most effective weapon you have to stop the IRS is to file Form 12153 - Request for Collection Due Process Hearing within 30 dates from the date of the letter.

In your Request for Collection Due Process hearing, you can also submit an Offer in Compromise or request an Installment Agreement. In your request for a hearing, you must offer an alternative, other than levy that would be acceptable to the IRS.

If you do not request for a Collection Due Process hearing, from day thirty one onwards the IRS is free to levy your bank accounts, wages and other properties.

If your request for a Collection Due Process hearing is made in time, the IRS will schedule a hearing.

This hearing is presided over by an Appeals Officer. The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether the collection activity by the IRS is appropriate.

The Appeals Officer is independent from IRS collection personnel and at the hearing must verify that the IRS followed all administrative and procedural requirements, determine if the proposed IRS collection action "balances the need for efficient collection of taxes with the legitimate concern of the taxpayer that the collection action be no more intrusive than necessary and consider all less intrusive collection alternatives such as an Offer in Compromise or an Installment Agreement which you may propose in your request for Collection Due Process hearing.

At the hearing, you can propose other ways to resolve the tax liability and also contest your liability for the underlying tax, as long as the liability has not been the subject of a previous Appeals Office determination or a final Tax Court decision.

While you are waiting for your hearing, the IRS will suspend all collection activities. If you fail to resolve your problem at the hearing the IRS will issue a Notice of Determination.

Unless you file a lawsuit in the United States District Court, thirty days after the Notice of Determination has been issued, the IRS can levy your wages and property.

Filing for a Collection Due Process hearing and/or a lawsuit in the United States District Court both extend the 10 year statute of limitation for recovery of tax dues.

If the deadline for requesting a Collection Due Process Hearing has passed, you can still request the IRS for an equivalent hearing using the same form - Form 12153 - Request for Collection Due Process Hearing.

An equivalent hearing, unlike a Collection Due Process hearing does not extend the 10 year statute of limitation for collection of tax debts.

Also the IRS may levy while you are awaiting equivalent hearing.

There is no right of appeal in any court against the decision of the IRS in an equivalent hearing.