Stop IRS Garnishment to Start Installment Payment Plan

 Posted on January 29, 2018 in Income Taxes

Filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy stops an IRS/state garnishment and other collection activities, even if it’s for a tax you still have to pay.

We ended the last blog post saying that sometimes a Chapter 7 bankruptcy will stop a wage garnishment only temporarily. One such situation is if the IRS (or state tax agency) is chasing you on a debt you can’t discharge.

An Income Tax Debt You Can’t Discharge

You can’t discharge (legally write off) the tax debt usually because it’s not old enough. If you owe such a tax debt, and your paycheck (or bank account) is being garnished, filing a Chapter 7 case will only stop the garnishment for the length of time your case is active—usually about 3-4 months. The protection from collection called the “automatic stay” ends when you receive a discharge of your debts. (See Section 362(c)(2)(C) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.)

The 3-4 Month Break in Collections Can Be Enough

For practical reasons the temporary nature of the protection is often not a problem. You could get much longer and better protection against the IRS and state on a debt you can’t discharge than you would under Chapter 7. You could do this by filing a Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” instead. That would give you 3 to 5 years to pay a tax debt that you can’t discharge. Plus Chapter 13 gives you other benefits, such as usually income tax debts stop accruing further interest and penalties. But Chapter 13 also has disadvantages, including that it takes so much longer to complete.

So you would deal with a nondischargeable tax debt through Chapter 7 instead of Chapter 13 for a simple reason. You’ve decided that you could afford to pay that tax debt through monthly payments once you discharged all or most of your other debts. You’ve carefully reviewed your itemized budget with your bankruptcy lawyer. You know which, if any, other debts you will continue to owe. You know which debts will be discharged. From this you’d determine how much you could start paying the IRS/state every month. Your lawyer should be able to tell you whether that would be enough to keep your tax creditor happy.

Mission Accomplished

Assuming you could afford the required monthly payment, you file a Chapter 7 case instead of a Chapter 13 one. Then, within a few weeks after filing you or your lawyer contacts the IRS/state to make monthly payment arrangements. Those monthly installment payments could start either before the completion of your Chapter 7 case or immediately thereafter. As part of the arrangements the IRS/state would agree not to garnish your paychecks (or take most other collection actions) as long as you make the agreed payments until you paid the tax (plus interest and penalties) in full.

Conclusion

The fact that Chapter 7 stops collection of non-dischargeable taxes only temporarily is not a problem as long as you are confident that you qualify for and can afford to pay the monthly payments the IRS/state will require.