Legal Question in Tax Law in Texas

Typically the IRS won't garnish your wages unless they have no other options - they would prefer to negotiate a settlement. It takes a few months to implement a wage garnishment, and they send you a number of threatening letters before they are able to garnish your wages.

You may be able to stop a garnishment in one of the following ways:

1) Pay your taxes in full. File your taxes for the missing year, and pay any amount due.

2) Enter into an installment agreement, by which you agree to pay off your tax debt in monthly increments until it is paid in full. This is the preferred solution - if the IRS accepts this arrangement, the garnishment will be stopped.

3) File for an Offer in Compromise, where you offer to settle for less than the amount you owe. This is often difficult to get the IRS to accept.

In any event, the first thing you need to do is file the missing return to determine how much you actually owe - it is often less than the IRS estimate, since the information they have is incomplete.

If you are looking for assistance, I should be able to help you - I also prepare tax returns for a number of clients. You can contact me through my website if you are interested.

Good luck!