A levy is the IRS actually taking your property — not threatening, taking. Bank accounts, paychecks, accounts receivable. And the defining feature of levy defense is that every path has a clock on it, and they're all short.
The Two Levies and Their Clocks
A bank levy is a snapshot: it freezes what's in the account at the moment it lands. The bank then holds those funds for 21 days before sending them to the IRS. That window exists by statute precisely so errors and hardship can be fixed — within it, a levy can be released by getting a resolution in place, proving the funds are exempt, or demonstrating economic hardship. After day 21, the money is in the Treasury and you're fighting for a refund instead.
A wage levy is worse: it's continuous, attaching to every paycheck until released, and the exempt amount the IRS leaves you is brutally small. Nobody waits out a wage levy. You get it released or you bleed.
Levies Are Usually Preventable
Before almost any levy, the law requires a Final Notice of Intent to Levy and 30 days to request a collection due process hearing under Section 6330 — and a timely request stops the levy before it starts. The taxpayers who get levied are overwhelmingly the ones who stopped opening the mail. I understand why; fear does that. But the notice you're avoiding is the one containing your rights.
And under Section 6343, even an active levy must be released when it creates economic hardship, when the statute has expired, or when release facilitates collection. A levy is a same-day emergency with same-day remedies. Call before the window closes, not after.