Medicare and Back Taxes

[pita]

Can your Medicare be placed on hold if you owe back taxes??
I have a client that owes back taxes and the gov't is holding her SS check and her Medicare. Now, the SS check I can see but her Medicare? I have never heard of this, any info would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[goillini52]

Can your Medicare be placed on hold if you owe back taxes??
I have a client that owes back taxes and the gov't is holding her SS check and her Medicare. Now, the SS check I can see but her Medicare? I have never heard of this, any info would be appreciated.
Thanks

I've never heard of that before, but the I.R.S. can do whatever the hell they want to...I do know that.

I was just curious...does your username stand for Pain In The Ass?

 

[pita]

I've never heard of that before, but the I.R.S. can do whatever the hell they want to...I do know that.

I was just curious...does your username stand for Pain In The Ass?

Yes it does, my husband has been lovingly calling me pita for over 30 years!

 

[Fisher]

Are they holding her ENTIRE check? If so, her Part B premium is likely not being paid... but she would still have Part A. Not that that helps anything.

 

[LostDollar]

Searching a little bit, I see a variety of 3rd party type articles that suggest that 15% is the maximum that can be withheld by the IRS. Quickly and easily I wasn't able to find an appropriate government document reference. I also saw comments about notifications. Your client must have received letters from the IRS prior to this actually starting-you could try asking her if she can produce any of that correspondence for you to review to get a sense of what is going on.

A tip I had seen online from a large national medsup agent is that Medicare is staffed 24 hours a day and calling late at night can allow you to get through more promptly. You could also try calling medicare and see if there are any suggestions which they might offer for an/the approach to IRS and/or Social Security in this situation.

Your client may have let the situation go so long she will now have to incur the additional expense of a tax accountant or attorney to get her out of the mess.

 

[goillini52]

Searching a little bit, I see a variety of 3rd party type articles that suggest that 15% is the maximum that can be withheld by the IRS. Quickly and easily I wasn't able to find an appropriate government document reference. I also saw comments about notifications. Your client must have received letters from the IRS prior to this actually starting-you could try asking her if she can produce any of that correspondence for you to review to get a sense of what is going on.

A tip I had seen online from a large national medsup agent is that Medicare is staffed 24 hours a day and calling late at night can allow you to get through more promptly. You could also try calling medicare and see if there are any suggestions which they might offer for an/the approach to IRS and/or Social Security in this situation.

Your client may have let the situation go so long she will now have to incur the additional expense of a tax accountant or attorney to get her out of the mess.

That is correct. I've called close to midnight and got right through.