Your rights during the collection process

Our collection unit will contact you if:

• you don't pay a bill that we sent you
• the deadline for appealing your bill has passed
• you have used all your appeal rights 

If you still do not pay, we may:

• file a tax warrant against you, which creates a lien against your real and personal property
• levy your assets. A levy is a legal seizure of your property. Examples:
   
  • direct a bank to send us money from your account(s)
  • direct your employer to send us a percentage of your wages (i.e., garnish your wages) through an "income execution" procedure
  • direct someone who owes you money to send it to us
  • seize your real or personal property to sell at auction

For more details, see Publication 131, Your Rights and Obligations Under the Tax Law.

Property seizures

Before we seize your property, we will:

• notify you that we have the right to enforce a warrant by levying your real and personal property
• only seize property if we estimate that the sales proceeds will exceed the expenses related to the seizure and sale

Sale of seized property

Any seized property that we sell:

• must be sold at fair market values; and
• may be offered for sale within 60 days or longer from the date you request its sale.

Release of levies and return of levied property

The Tax Commissioner may authorize the release of a levy or return seized property to you if:

• the levy or seizure creates undue hardship
• we didn't follow proper procedures
• you have an installment payment agreement that provides for the release of the lien
• it will help us collect the amount due or is in the best interest of both the taxpayer and the state

If we determine that a levy or seizure was unjust, we may return:

• seized property
• money equal to the property's fair market value
• money seized plus interest