I had people who owed money to IRS. They tend to send many written notices before they go off taking it from their account or paycheck.
You are correct. We had notice that we owed the IRS, but we contested it, and without a conclusion to that, and without any hint that they were going to drain our bank account, they did. When it happened I was in Texas trying to salvage a business that a partner was struggling with, and my wife and kids were in New Mexico. They woke up one morning completely broke, and I was a thousand miles away not much better. Thankfully, I had just sold some property in Texas, and I picked up a construction contract at the same time. We only had to go penniless for a month . It was an eye opening experience. ...When I say that the IRS didn’t pay any interest I might be wrong. What they didn’t pay was the 100 percent fine they had added on. This was back during the end of Carter’s debacle or Reagan’s first year, that time frame.