Two jobs is common. A full-time job and a weekend shift. A salary and a side gig paid on a W-2. Two part-time positions that together make one living. When the IRS levies wages in that situation, the exemption works differently than most people expect.
The short version: you get one exempt amount, not one per employer. And the IRS can arrange things so that one of your employers allows no exemption at all.
The governing rule
Treasury Regulation 301.6334-2(c) covers taxpayers with more than one source of wages, salary or other income. The IRS may levy on one source and leave others alone. If the income it leaves free equals or exceeds your exempt amount, the IRS may treat no amount of the levied wages as exempt. It does that by notifying the levied employer, and the employer may rely on that notice.
IRM 5.11.5.4.4 implements this. When you are getting the exempt amount from one levied source and another source is levied too, the IRS includes Letter 1697 with the second levy to tell that employer not to allow any exempt amount. If you have an unlevied source that pays at least the exempt amount, Letter 1697 can go with a levy on another source for the same purpose.
Three scenarios
Scenario 1: One job levied, the other is big enough
Ana is single with no dependents, paid weekly. Her 2026 weekly exempt amount under Publication 1494 (Rev. 12-2025) is $309.62. Her main job pays $900 a week take-home. Her weekend job pays $350. The IRS levies the main job and includes Letter 1697 because the weekend job pays more than $309.62. Her main employer allows no exemption and sends the whole $900. Ana lives on $350 a week.
That is lawful under the regulation. It is also brutal, and it is a strong setup for an economic hardship release if $350 a week does not cover her basic living expenses.
Scenario 2: One job levied, the other is small
The regulation’s own example: a taxpayer earns $50 a week from one job and $75 a week from another. The IRS levies the $75 job. Because the unlevied income is less than the exempt amount, the IRS can tell the levied employer that only the difference is exempt. Under Treasury Regulation 301.6334-2(c)(2), the IRS designates the source and amount and notifies the employer. Without that notice, the employer computes the exemption as if it were the only source.
Scenario 3: Both jobs levied
If both employers get a levy, IRM 5.11.5.4.4 says the second levy comes with Letter 1697 so only one employer allows the exemption. You get one exemption total.
What happens without Letter 1697
The default protects you. Under Treasury Regulation 301.6334-2(c)(1), absent IRS notification, each levied employer “must determine the amount exempt from levy” as if it were your only source of wages. If two employers are levied and neither got a Letter 1697, each might apply the full exemption.
Do not mistake that for a loophole. The IRS can send the letter later, and you will owe whatever was not collected. But it explains why two people with the same jobs can have different results.
Your spouse’s job is not your second job
IRM 5.11.5.4.4 includes a note that matters: spousal income does not count as a second source of income for this rule. The rule applies when a second source pays at least the exempt amount to the taxpayer named on the levy. Your spouse’s paycheck is your spouse’s. Different rules apply if both of you owe; see when both spouses owe.
Self-employment income
The regulation speaks of wages, salary or other income. If your second source is self-employment or contract income, the IRS considers income from all sources. IRM 5.11.5.4.4 says to consider income from all sources when a taxpayer has more than one. Contract income has its own levy issues; see levies on 1099 and contractor income.
What to do if you have two jobs and a levy
- Find out what each employer received. Ask payroll at each job whether it received a levy and whether a Letter 1697 came with it.
- Return the levy statement to the employer that is supposed to allow the exemption. Use the right filing status and dependents. See the statement guide.
- Add up what you actually take home from all jobs after the levy. Compare it to your real living expenses.
- If you cannot cover basic expenses, request a hardship release with a full financial statement showing both jobs.
- If you can afford a payment, propose one. An installment agreement requires release of the levy under IRC 6343(a)(1)(C). See installment agreements and wage levies.
Running the numbers on your own case
Take Ana again. Before the levy, she took home $1,250 a week from both jobs. With Letter 1697 on the main job, she keeps $350. If her rent, utilities, food, transportation and insurance come to $1,100 a week, the levy is leaving her $750 short of basic living expenses every week.
That gap is the case for a hardship release, and the IRS evaluates it with a financial statement covering both jobs. If her analysis shows she can afford, say, $600 a month toward the debt, the IRS can release the levy in part so only that amount goes to the IRS each month, or set up an installment agreement and release it entirely. Both outcomes beat losing $900 a week. Neither happens without a phone call and a financial statement.
Do not quit the second job
I understand the instinct. If the IRS is going to take the whole first paycheck because the second job exists, why keep the second job? Because the debt does not go away, and the IRS sees your financial history. Cutting income to defeat a levy invites questions about good faith, and Treasury Regulation 301.6343-1(b)(4)(iii) makes good faith a condition of hardship relief. Fix the levy with the tools the law provides.
Changing jobs
A levy is served on a particular employer. If you leave that employer and take a new job, the old levy does not follow you to the new payroll. The IRS has to find the new employer and serve a new levy. That is not a reason to change jobs. It is a reason to understand that leaving a levied job resolves nothing about the debt. The balance, penalties and interest are all still there, and the IRS can levy the next employer once it learns who that is.
One person, one exemption. The question is which paycheck carries it, and whether what is left covers your life.