{"id":26623,"date":"2017-07-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/difference-lien-levy\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T15:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:24:20","slug":"difference-lien-levy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/difference-lien-levy\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the difference between a lien and a levy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stop losing sleep over your tax situation. I'm Darrin Mish \u2014 a tax attorney in Tampa who's spent 32 years handling exactly this kind of problem. Here's what you need to know.<\/p>\n

Understanding the difference between a lien<\/strong><\/a> and a levy<\/a><\/strong> will help you determine the steps needed to resolve the issue. Both liens and levies are ways to collect an outstanding debt, but a levy is more serious than a lien. In both scenarios, creditors get legal rights to your personal property to repay the debt. You lose control of some or all your personal property.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lien<\/h2>\n

The general difference between a lien and a levy is that a lien is a legal claim over your assets to meet a tax debt. A\u00a0levy is a legal seizure of your property.<\/p>\n

In reference to a tax lien, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will attempt to collect any unpaid taxes by attaching a lien to your property. If the property sells, the proceeds from the sale will be granted to the IRS over any other creditors.<\/p>\n

The IRS will file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien which lets other creditors know that the government has a legal right to your property. Since this notice is a public record, it may be included in your credit report, therefore affecting your credit score. You have the right to appeal this notice.<\/p>\n

Levy<\/h2>\n

A levy is also used to collect overdue taxes. But, it also allows the IRS to actually take your property to pay the debt. A tax levy is a more severe step in collecting taxes. The IRS will issue a Final Notice of Intent to Levy, and you have 30 days to file an appeal.<\/p>\n

If you do not meet this deadline, r do not settle with the IRS, they can begin to levy your bank accounts. Unlike a lien however, an IRS levy is not public record, and should not affect your credit score.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stop losing sleep over your tax situation. I'm Darrin Mish \u2014 a tax attorney in Tampa who's spent 32 years handling exactly this kind of problem. Here's what you need to know. Understanding the difference between a lien and a levy will help you determine the steps needed to resolve the issue. Both liens and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[602,4],"tags":[144,127],"class_list":["post-26623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irs-faq","category-irs-help","tag-irs-levy","tag-tax-lien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26630,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26623\/revisions\/26630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}