Form 668-W is the IRS wage levy served on your employer. It is not a warning. It is the levy itself. The copy you received is a notification; your employer received the same form with instructions to begin withholding immediately. The levy is continuous. Every paycheck is reduced until the balance is paid, the collection statute expires, or the IRS releases it.
How Much the IRS Takes
Your employer calculates an exempt amount using the Statement of Exemptions and Filing Status (included with the levy) and the current year's Publication 1494 tables. Everything above that exempt amount goes to the IRS. The exempt amount is roughly the standard deduction for your filing status plus an amount for each dependent, spread over the pay period. For most people, that is far less than they actually need to live on.
If you do not return the Statement of Exemptions to your employer within three business days, your employer is required to calculate the exempt amount as if you were married filing separately with zero dependents, which produces the smallest allowed exemption. Fill it out and return it immediately.
Why a Form 668-W Means the Final Notice Was Sent
Before issuing Form 668-W, the IRS must have sent a final notice of intent to levy (CP90, Letter 1058, or LT11) and waited 30 days for a Collection Due Process hearing request. If you received the levy itself, that 30-day window has closed. The remaining paths involve negotiating a release rather than contesting the levy.
How to Get a Wage Levy Released
The IRS must release the levy if it creates an economic hardship under IRC Section 6343, if you enter an installment agreement that provides for release, if the balance is paid, or if the collection statute expired before the levy was served. Economic hardship is the fastest path when there is no money to pay. You will need to document that the amount being levied prevents you from meeting basic living expenses. The IRS uses Form 433-A or 433-F for this.
A Collection Appeals Program request (Form 9423) can force a review of the levy within days. It does not stop collection on its own, but it opens a direct channel to an Appeals Officer who has release authority.
What Your Employer Can and Cannot Do
Your employer must comply. Federal law prohibits firing you for a single wage levy. Your employer cannot negotiate the amount, cannot delay compliance, and cannot verify with you whether the levy is correct. The IRS controls release. Your employer does not.
If a Form 668-W landed on your paycheck, call us at (813) 229-7100. We handle wage levy releases regularly, and the sooner we are involved the sooner the next paycheck looks normal.