What is the Treasury Offset Program (TOP)?
A5: The Treasury Offset Program (TOP) is a centralized debt collection program that FMS developed to assist agencies in the collection of delinquent debt owed to the federal government. Federal statutes require a federal disbursing official to conduct such an offset when the name and TIN of a payee match the name and TIN of a delinquent debtor. Treasury uses TOP to match delinquent debt files against payment files. When a match occurs, the payment is intercepted and offset up to the amount of the debt. For more information on TOP, including all published rules, notices, and bulletins, please refer to http://www.fms.treas.gov/dms/top.html. 6. What is a tax levy? A6: The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 authorizes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to collect overdue federal tax debts from federal payment recipients by continuously levying up to 15 percent of each eligible payment until the debt is paid. Under the tax levy process, IRS will supply FMS with an electronic file containing tax de
