TIGTA just audited the IRS's levy restart. If you have a pending CDP hearing related to a levy, this is worth reading.
I'm a CPA who works IRS collection cases. Wanted to flag a report that doesn't seem to be getting much attention outside tax practitioner circles.
The IRS paused its automated levy system (ACS) for three years starting in the pandemic. It turned levies back on in April 2025. TIGTA (the IRS's own inspector general) audited that restart and published the results on July 27, 2026. Some numbers from the report:
* ACS issued 4,860 levies against 4,768 taxpayers in the first ten weeks alone (April 21 to June 30, 2025)
* ACS staffing was cut by 1,704 people, 42 percent, in 2025, before this restart happened
* The audit found 14 violations of taxpayer rights: 10 people got levied while their Collection Due Process (CDP) hearing was still pending, and 4 didn't get a required new notice after the IRS added a fresh assessment
The part that stood out to me: 3 of those 10 unlawful levies happened to taxpayers who filed their CDP request on time, just to the wrong address. The request got rerouted, sat in a queue, and the levy went out anyway before anyone logged it.
There's also a broader intake problem. From May 2025 through January 2026, the IRS only got 86 percent of CDP hearing requests (14,619 of 16,972) entered into its tracking system within its own 10-day standard. 2,353 were late, and 94 sat for more than 60 days.
The mechanical point that a lot of people don't realize: mailing your CDP request doesn't stop a levy by itself. The IRS's system only blocks the levy once an employee has logged your request into the CDP Tracking System. Between mailing and logging, you're exposed, and this report shows that gap is real, not theoretical.
To be fair to the IRS, they complied correctly in 99.7 percent of cases and have already made some process changes (longer processing windows, a new universal inventory system in January 2026). But if you're in the 0.3 percent, that doesn't help you.
If you've gotten a Notice of Intent to Levy (LT11 or Letter 1058), you have 30 days to request a hearing, and where and how you file it matters more than this report makes it look like it should. If you're up against a real deadline or already have a levy in place, consider getting a tax professional who does IRS collection work specifically involved rather than handling the CDP request solo. It's a short window and the paperwork mechanics are apparently not as automatic as they're supposed to be.
Report is TIGTA 2026-300-035, publicly available on tigta.gov if anyone wants to read the whole thing.