IRS Tax Relief Houston, TX Get Help Across Harris County

A monthly installment agreement is where most cases in Houston end up. If your combined tax, penalties and interest come to $50,000 or less, you can generally get a streamlined plan without giving the IRS a full financial statement.

Past that line, the IRS asks for Form 433-A and measures your budget against its Local Standards. For Harris County, the 2026 housing and utilities figure for a family of four is $2,971 a month. Spend more than that and the IRS generally expects a good reason before it allows the difference.

Our enrolled agents build the 433-A from your pay stubs, bank statements and bills, including the truck note and the commute in from Katy or Baytown, so the payment we propose matches what your month really costs.

A garnishment has warning signs. First comes CP504, the notice that the IRS intends to levy. Then LT11 or Letter 1058, the final notice, which gives you 30 days to request a Collection Due Process hearing. Let that window close and the levy can go straight to your employer.

Here that employer might be a hospital in the Texas Medical Center, a plant along the Houston Ship Channel, or a school district payroll office. Every payday it sends the IRS whatever is above the Publication 1494 exempt amount, and it keeps going until the IRS releases the levy.

Texas wage protections that stop most creditors don't reach a federal tax levy. What usually ends one is a resolution. Once an installment agreement or hardship status is in place, we have grounds to request the release.

A federal tax lien is the IRS's legal claim on what you own, and in Texas that includes a homestead. The Supreme Court settled it in a case from this state, United States v. Rodgers. A lien doesn't take the house. It sits on the title and shows up at closing.

A levy is different: the IRS reaches in and takes funds. For owner-operators and contractors in Houston, it often lands on the business checking account. The bank holds the funds for 21 days before paying the IRS, and that hold is when we push for a bank levy release by putting a resolution in front of the IRS.

If you need to sell or refinance, we can ask the IRS for a lien discharge or subordination. Your main home can't be levied without a federal judge's approval.

When your paycheck barely stretches over rent, groceries and gas, the IRS can put your account in currently not collectible status. Levies and garnishments stop. The debt stays: interest keeps adding up, a lien can still be filed, and the IRS reviews your finances again later.

For one adult living alone in Harris County, the 2026 housing and utilities allowance is $2,153 a month. If yours runs higher, say after storm repairs or a rent increase, we document why on the 433-A so the hardship is clear on paper.

Time spent in this status still counts toward the 10-year collection statute expiration date. For some people, that clock running out is what finally closes the case.

The IRS settles the bulk of its audits through letters alone. When it wants to meet in person, an office audit for Houston taxpayers can mean a trip to the federal building downtown at 1919 Smith Street, which also houses a Taxpayer Advocate Service office.

You don't have to sit across from the examiner. With Power of Attorney on file, an enrolled agent goes in your place, brings organized records and handles the follow-up requests, so nothing gets answered off the cuff.

An audit sometimes turns up older problems, like unpaid 941 deposits or a joint return with a former spouse. We take those on too, including innocent spouse relief when the debt belongs to someone else.