Most people who get levied focus on the big question: how do I make this stop? Fair enough. But there is a smaller question with an immediate payoff, and it comes with a three-day clock. How much of each paycheck do you keep while the levy is running?
The answer depends almost entirely on one document: the statement your employer gives you with the levy. The IRM calls it the Statement of Dependents and Filing Status. Fill it out right and the exempt amount reflects your actual family. Ignore it and the law assumes the worst.
Why the statement exists
IRC 6334(d) bases your exempt amount on your standard deduction and your dependents. Your employer does not know either of those things. The Code handles that by putting the burden on you. Unless you submit “a written and properly verified statement specifying the facts necessary” to figure the amount, IRC 6334(d)(4)(D) says the calculation is done as if you were married filing separately with no dependents.
IRM 5.11.5.4.1 adds the practical detail: the employer gives the statement to you to complete and return within three days. If it is not received by then, the default applies. You can give the statement to the employer later to change the exempt amount.
Do not copy your W-4
This trips people up constantly. Your W-4 tells your employer how much income tax to withhold. It is not the levy statement. IRM 5.11.5.4.1 says the employer needs to use the levy statement rather than the employee’s W-4, because people may claim different things for withholding than they claim on their return.
The levy statement asks about your filing status and the dependents you can claim. It is about who you are for tax return purposes, not how you set your withholding.
Filling it out, line by line
Filing status
Choose the status you will use on your income tax return for the year the levy was served: single, married filing jointly (which the 2026 Pub. 1494 groups with qualifying surviving spouses), married filing separately, or head of household. Pick the status you will actually file. The statement is signed under penalty of perjury.
The status matters a lot. For 2026, the biweekly base exempt amount is $619.23 for single or married filing separately, $928.85 for head of household and $1,238.46 for married filing jointly. Those figures come from Publication 1494 (Rev. 12-2025). If you qualify as head of household and check single, you are giving the IRS $309.62 every two weeks you did not have to.
Dependents
List each person you can claim as a dependent. IRM 5.11.5.4 ties this to IRC 152, which defines a dependent as a qualifying child or qualifying relative, and notes that you cannot claim yourself. Your spouse is not your dependent. If you are not sure who qualifies, read who counts as a dependent on a wage levy.
Each dependent adds $203.85 per biweekly paycheck for 2026. That is $5,300 a year divided by 26.
Additional standard deduction
Pub. 1494 tells you to write a number in the “ADDITIONAL STANDARD DEDUCTION” space on Parts 3, 4 and 5 of the levy if you or your spouse are 65 or older or blind. Count one for each condition that applies. A married taxpayer over 65 whose spouse is blind writes 2. The 2026 figures are in the age 65 and blind guide.
Signature
Sign and date it. IRM 5.11.5.4.1 notes the statement is completed under penalty of perjury, and that the IRS generally accepts it unless there is reason to question it.
What if the IRS questions your dependents?
It happens. If the IRS disallows dependents, IRM 5.11.5.4.1 says it must notify the employer and you in writing. You can provide evidence that the statement is right and request managerial review. Birth certificates, school records showing your address and proof of support are the usual evidence. Keep the review request in writing.
When to file a new statement
The statement is not a one-time event. IRM 5.11.5.4.1 gives two examples of when a new one makes sense: your filing status or dependents change, or the exempt rates change in a new year. Treasury Regulation 301.6334-3(e) is the reason the second one matters. Without a new statement, your exempt amount stays tied to the year the levy was served.
Had a baby? Got divorced? Turned 65? Levy served before January? File a new statement. See updating the exempt amount on an old levy.
Special situations
- Centralized payroll. Some employers run payroll far from where you work. IRM 5.11.5.4.2 lets the IRS mail the statement directly to you with Notice 483, and send the employer Notice 484, to avoid delay.
- Both spouses levied. If you file jointly and both incomes are levied, IRM 5.11.5.4.3 says only one of you can claim the standard deduction for figuring the exempt amount, and neither can claim the other as a dependent. See when both spouses owe.
- Child support. A child whose court-ordered support is exempted under IRC 6334(a)(8) cannot also be listed as a dependent. See wage levies and child support.
Common mistakes on the statement
- Leaving it with HR and never following up. Ask payroll to confirm in writing which status and how many dependents they entered. Then check your next stub.
- Checking single when you qualify as head of household. Head of household generally requires that you be unmarried and pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home for a qualifying person. If you qualify, the 2026 difference is $154.80 a week.
- Double counting with your spouse. If both of you are levied and you file jointly, you cannot both claim the joint standard deduction or each other as dependents.
- Listing a child who lives with your former spouse. If you will not claim the child on your return, do not list the child on the statement. If you pay court-ordered support for that child, the support exemption is the right tool instead.
- Guessing. The statement is verified under penalty of perjury. Accuracy protects you if the IRS asks questions later.
What the statement will not do
It will not stop the levy. It will not reduce the debt. It will not change how levy money is applied. The statement only sets how much of each paycheck stays with you while the levy runs. That is still worth doing on day one, because every other fix takes longer than three days.
A simple routine
- Get the statement and Pub. 1494 from payroll the day the levy arrives.
- Complete it the same day. Use your tax return status, not your W-4.
- Hand it back and ask payroll to confirm in writing the exempt amount they will use.
- Check the next stub against the calculator.
- Then start on the release. That is the bigger fight. See how to stop a wage garnishment.
One page. Three days. Hundreds of dollars a paycheck. Do not let it sit in your car.