Federal Payment Levy Program
A levy that runs automatically against Social Security and other federal payments, continuing on each payment rather than acting once.
The thing most worth knowing
This is a continuous levy, not a one-time one. The authorizing IRM section states: "IRC 6331(h)... authorizes the IRS to issue continuous levies on payments referred to as 'specified payments.'" For most of the federal payment types the IRM lists — federal retirement annuities, federal employee salaries and travel payments, Social Security Administration benefits under Title II — "The FPLP will levy 15% of the payment." Publication 594 states the same ceiling for a general reader: the IRS "can generally seize up to 15% of your federal payments (up to 100% of payments due to a vendor for property, goods or services sold or leased to the federal government)." None of this is the rule for wages a private employer pays you — that is a different levy with no percentage cap, described on Wage Garnishment, and the two figures must not be swapped.
What this covers
- What "continuous" means for this levy, and how it differs from a one-time bank levy
- Which federal payment types the IRM lists as covered, and which two are levied at a different rate than the rest
- A Social Security exception the IRM states by name, inside the payment type most people assume is uniform
- The income-based filter that can exclude a case from the program before any levy runs
- The two notice pairs this program uses, and what each pair states about the appeal window
This page routes. It does not repeat what the pages below already say, and it does not tell you which situation you are in.
Questions this raises
Does the 15% figure apply to Social Security disability payments the same way?
Not uniformly. The IRM puts Social Security Administration benefit payments under Title II — Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance — into the class levied at 15%, then immediately narrows it: "The exceptions are disability insurance payments, dependent child benefits, claims for lump sum payments, and payments that have partial withholding to repay an SSA benefit overpayment." A different program of benefit is excluded outright: "Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments are not subject to the FPLP." The IRS does not treat every Social Security-adjacent payment identically, and this hub does not either.
Can an income-based filter keep this levy from running at all?
Yes, for some benefit types. The IRM states: "Delinquent Individual Master File (IMF) taxpayers who qualify for the FPLP and are reported to receive SSA benefit, military retirement payments or Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) benefit payments, will be excluded from the program if their estimated total income falls below 250% of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Poverty Level Guidelines (PLG)." The IRM names this the Low Income Filter. It does not apply to every FPLP-eligible payment type, and the dollar income figures the filter actually uses are not stated on the page read for this hub — see the gap below.
What notice tells me this program is about to reach my payment?
Two different notice pairs, and they are not interchangeable. CP90 (individual) or CP297 (business) is titled "Intent to seize your assets and notice of your right to a hearing" and carries the ordinary Collection Due Process appeal window. CP91 (individual) or CP298 (business) is titled "Intent to seize up to 15% of your Social Security benefits," and the IRM states it "displays the balance due amounts and provides an additional 30 days after the CDP notice time frame to resolve the tax liability." Read which one arrived — the additional window belongs to the second pair, not the first.
Does an economic-hardship claim stop this levy?
Financial Hardship states the IRS uses different verbs for a wage levy ("must" release) and a bank levy ("may" release). Neither source read for this hub states which of those two standards — or a third one — governs a levy under this program specifically. That is a real gap, not an inference this hub is prepared to make; if hardship is the reason to contact the IRS, call the number on the notice you received and ask directly.
Notices that arrive in this situation
Options the IRS publishes
Listed because they relate to this situation, not because any of them applies to you. That is the IRS’s determination on your full financial position.
What this page does not say
- The Low Income Filter's underlying dollar income estimates (the calculation behind the 250%-of-poverty-guideline test) are described procedurally in IRM 5.11.7.3.2.3 and its exhibit, but the current figures produced by that calculation are not published in taxpayer-facing form on any page read for this hub.
- Whether the wage-levy "must release" or bank-levy "may release" hardship standard — or neither — applies to a levy under this program is not stated in the sources read here.
Sourced to primary IRS materials and editorially reviewed. Not reviewed by a tax professional. Not tax advice. Every fact on this page comes from a linked record that carries its own sources and review date.