IRS Tax Relief in Texas Back Taxes, Levies, and Garnishments.

An installment agreement is the most common way Texans resolve an IRS balance. At $50,000 or less, a streamlined plan generally avoids a full financial disclosure. Above that, Form 433-A compares your budget with county allowances, and in Texas those vary by more than $1,600 a month.

For a family of four in 2026, the IRS allows $3,836 a month for housing and utilities in Collin County, the highest in the state, and $3,564 in Travis County. Dallas County sits at $3,034 and Harris County at $2,971. In Bexar County it's $2,728, in El Paso County $2,350, and in Hidalgo County $2,214.

Same income, different county, different payment. We build the 433-A on the figure for where you actually live.

Texas law shields paychecks from most creditors, which surprises people when the IRS garnishes anyway. A federal levy isn't bound by that protection. The sequence is a CP504 notice, then the LT11 or Letter 1058, which gives you 30 days to request a Collection Due Process hearing before the levy reaches payroll.

From there, the levy takes everything above the Publication 1494 exempt amount, every payday, from a refinery check in Beaumont to a hospital check in El Paso. It continues until released. A payment plan, hardship status or other resolution is generally what gets the IRS to lift it.

Texas homestead protections are strong against ordinary creditors, but a federal tax lien can still attach to a Texas home and show up at closing. The IRS can't levy your main home without a federal judge's approval, so for most people the lien is the property problem and the levy is the cash problem.

Levies hit checking accounts, wages, and payments owed to contractors and owner-operators. A levied bank account is held for 21 days, which is the window for a bank levy release. For a lien, we can request a discharge to sell, subordination to refinance, or withdrawal after you set up a direct debit plan that qualifies.

When your basic living costs take everything you earn, the IRS can place the account in currently not collectible status. Levies and collection activity stop. Interest keeps accruing, the IRS can still file a lien, and it checks your income again later.

Whether you qualify depends partly on where in Texas you live. The IRS allows $361 a month to run one car in the Houston metro and $339 in Dallas-Ft. Worth, while the rest of the state, from Austin to Laredo, uses the South region figure of $291. Housing allowances vary even more from county to county.

The IRS handles most audits through the mail. When one becomes an office audit, it means meeting an examiner at an IRS office. Texas has 22 IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers, four of them in Houston, with others from Harlingen to Amarillo. All are by appointment at 844-545-5640.

You don't have to face the examiner alone, or even show up. With Power of Attorney on file, an enrolled agent represents you before the examiner. We also handle 941 payroll audits for Texas employers, and innocent spouse relief when a joint return's audit turns up income from a spouse you're no longer with.