(a) Return of property—(1) General rule. If the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determines that property has been wrongfully levied upon, the IRS may return—

(i) The specific property levied upon;

(ii) An amount of money equal to the amount of money levied upon; or

(iii) An amount of money equal to the amount of money received by the United States from a sale of the property.

(2) Time of return. If the United States is in possession of specific property, the property may be returned at any time. An amount equal to the amount of money levied upon or received from a sale of the property may be returned at any time before the expiration of 9 months from the date of the levy. When a request described in paragraph (b) of this section is filed for the return of property before the expiration of 9 months from the date of levy, an amount of money may be returned after a reasonable period of time subsequent to the expiration of the 9-month period if necessary for the investigation and processing of such request.

(3) Specific property. In general the specific property levied upon will be returned whenever possible. For this purpose, money that is specifically identifiable, as in the case of a coin collection which may be worth substantially more than its face value, is treated as specific property.

(4) Purchase by United States. For purposes of paragraph (a)(1)(iii) of this section, if property is declared purchased by the United States at a sale pursuant to section 6335(e), the United States is treated as having received an amount of money equal to the minimum price determined by the IRS before the sale or, if larger, the amount received by the United States from the resale of the property.

(b) Request for return of property. A written request for the return of property wrongfully levied upon must be given to the IRS official, office and address specified in IRS Publication 4528, “Making an Administrative Wrongful Levy Claim Under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 6343(b),” or any successor publication. The relevant IRS publications may be downloaded from the IRS internet site at http://www.irs.gov. Under this section, a request for the return of property wrongfully levied upon is not effective if it is given to an office other than the office listed in the relevant publication. The written request must contain the following information—

(1) The name and address of the person submitting the request;

(2) A detailed description of the property levied upon;

(3) A description of the claimant's basis for claiming an interest in the property levied upon; and

(4) The name and address of the taxpayer, the originating IRS office, and the date of the levy as shown on the notice of levy form, or levy form, or, in lieu thereof, a statement of the reasons why such information cannot be furnished.

(c) Inadequate request. A request for the return of property wrongfully levied upon will not be considered adequate unless it is a written request containing the information required by paragraph (b) of this section. However, unless a notification is mailed by the IRS to the claimant within 30 days of receipt of the request to inform the claimant of the inadequacies, any written request will be considered adequate. If the IRS timely notifies the claimant of the inadequacies of his request, the claimant has 30 days from the receipt of the notification of inadequacy to supply in writing any omitted information. Where the omitted information is so supplied within the 30-day period, the request will be considered to be adequate from the time the original request was made for purposes of determining the applicable period of limitation upon suit under section 6532(c).

(d) Payment of interest. Interest is paid at the overpayment rate established under section 6621—

(1) In the case of money returned under paragraph (a)(1)(ii) of this section, from the date the IRS received the money to a date (to be determined by the IRS) preceding the date of return by not more than 30 days; or

(2) In the case of money returned under paragraph (a)(1)(iii) of this section, from the date of the sale of the property to a date (to be determined by the IRS) preceding the date of return by not more than 30 days.

(e) Effective/applicability date. These regulations are effective on July 8, 2008.

[T.D. 8587, 59 FR 37, Jan. 3, 1995, as amended by T.D. 9344, 72 FR 39739, July 20, 2007; T.D. 9410, 73 FR 38916, July 8, 2008]