Who's Who in IRS Collection: Revenue Officers, Advisory, PALS, COIC and More

People talk about the IRS as if it were one person. Inside Collection alone, your file can pass through a campus call site, a support unit, a field group, an advisory group, an offer unit and a lien unit. Each one has a defined job and defined authority.

If you call the wrong one, you wait. If you know who handles what, you go straight to the office that can actually act. Here is a map, drawn from the IRM.

ACS call sites and ACS Support

The Automated Collection System runs from campus locations. IRM 5.19.5.1.1 (rev. 2025-03-03) lists call sites, which handle incoming and outgoing calls, and support sites, which process correspondence and the computer inputs call sites request. ACS Support is covered in its own IRM section, IRM 5.19.6.

IRM 5.19.5.1 says the ACS audience includes tax examiners, customer service representatives, collection representatives and team managers. If you call the number on a balance due letter, you are usually talking to ACS.

Field Collection: Revenue Officers and their managers

Revenue Officers work in Field Collection groups led by group managers, who report to field compliance managers, who report to area directors. IRM 1.4.50 (rev. 2025-04-01) is the operational aid for that chain.

IRM 5.1.20.5 lists Revenue Officer assignments: balance due accounts, delinquent return investigations, other investigations requested by other functions, federal tax deposit alerts, offers in compromise and compliance initiative projects. Officers are graded GS-5 through GS-13, and IRM 1.4.50.10.1 says cases are issued with a grade of GS-11, 12 or 13 to match difficulty.

Field Collection also uses office-based tax examiners for some cases. IRM 1.4.50.10.5 says tax examiners will not conduct field visits and work by phone, mail and online, generally on grade 11 cases with balances below $25,000 that do not involve trust fund penalties or limited liability companies.

Advisory: the technical support behind the field

Advisory is part of Civil Enforcement Advice and Support Operations, called CEASO. IRM 1.4.53.1.1 (rev. 2025-07-17) says CEASO employees work with Field Collection to ensure legal and procedural requirements are met in actions such as lien determinations, levy, seizure and sale, trust fund penalties, litigation and collateral agreements, and that they work with taxpayers on lien priority issues and claims against the government.

IRM 1.4.53.6.1 lists Advisory's major program areas. Lien certificates, meaning release, discharge, subordination, withdrawal and non-attachment, are one of the main areas where Advisory deals with taxpayers directly. Summons enforcement goes through Advisory before Counsel. Advisory reviews seizure recommendations before they go to the approving official, conducts pre-seizure and post-seizure reviews and keeps the seizure log. Collection litigation, both suits by and against the United States, is controlled there too.

Advisory also handles foreclosures and redemptions. IRM 1.4.53.6.1 says most of that work is procedural and done by tax examiners, but technical issues such as judicial foreclosures, redemption investigations, releases of the right of redemption and surplus proceeds from foreclosure sales normally require an advisor.

And Advisory sits at the crossroads. IRM 1.4.53.1.1 says CEASO employees work with functions outside Field Collection, including the Taxpayer Advocate Service, Examination, Taxpayer Services, Counsel, Criminal Investigation and Appeals, to make sure legal requirements are met and correct information is given to internal and external customers.

If you are selling property and need a lien discharge or subordination, Advisory is usually your office, not the Revenue Officer.

The Centralized Lien Operation

IRM 1.4.53.6.1 notes that many external questions about Notices of Federal Tax Lien and lien document processing may be handled by referral to the Centralized Lien Operation, while technical questions go to Advisory. Routine lien payoff and release questions often start there.

PALS: the people who sell seized property

Property Appraisal and Liquidation Specialists, PALS, are also in CEASO. IRM 1.4.53 describes PALS managers overseeing work with short and critical time frames and says managers must ensure custody of seized assets is promptly accepted and assets timely moved to sale. Real property custody transfer should be immediate or as soon as possible, and personal property custody transfer as soon as possible but no more than 30 days.

PALS managers also oversee purchasing for the program, which IRM 1.4.53 calls a sensitive area requiring strict adherence to procurement rules, and they review ICS inventory reports monthly to make sure seized property cases keep moving.

If you are dealing with PALS, a seizure has already happened. That is the moment to understand your redemption and appeal options immediately.

Other CEASO groups

IRM 1.4.53.6 lists the other CEASO groups: an Estate Tax group, an Independent Administrative Reviewer group, a Restitution-Based Assessment group, Advisory Consolidated Receipts and Control Point Monitoring. IRM 1.4.53.6.1 says Control Point Monitoring tax examiners support trust fund penalty case processing, claims for refund, appeals and file control.

Offer units

Offers in compromise are worked both centrally and in the field. Delegation Order 5-1 in IRM 1.2.2.6.1 (rev. 2026-06-29) delegates offer authority to positions in SB/SE Collection's centralized offer in compromise operations, called COIC, and to field Collection offer group and territory managers, along with Appeals managers.

IRM 5.1.20.4.1 lists Field Offer in Compromise inventory as part of the ENTITY database. The offer examiner investigating your offer and the manager with acceptance authority are usually different people, as I explain in IRS Delegation Orders.

Headquarters and the routing teams

Behind the scenes are headquarters analysts who design the routing. IRM 5.1.20.1.3 says the Director of Collection Inventory Delivery and Selection is responsible for inventory delivery procedures, Collection Analytics, Routing and Selection analysts oversee the routing program, Collection Case Delivery analysts oversee ENTITY and ICS, and Strategic Analysis and Modeling analysts oversee the predictive models.

IRM 5.1.20 also mentions Centralized Case Processing, which issues certain Other Investigations to the field. You will never talk to these teams. But they decide the rules that decide which of the other offices gets your case.

Insolvency

When a bankruptcy is filed, a different set of employees gets involved. IRM 5.19.5.4.2 says ACS assigns cases with a decedent or bankruptcy indicator to its R4 research unit. Delegation Order 5-3 in IRM 1.2.2.6.3 grants levy-related authorities to Insolvency employees and managers, and grants authority to release levies to positions including bankruptcy specialists and bankruptcy technicians.

If you are in bankruptcy, the Revenue Officer may not be the right contact for the bankruptcy issues themselves.

Which office to call

Here is the practical version of the map.

• A balance due letter with no named employee: the number on the letter, which usually reaches ACS.
• A Revenue Officer has contacted you: the officer, at the direct number on their letter, and the group manager if needed.
• You need a lien discharge, subordination, withdrawal or certificate of non-attachment: Advisory, which handles lien certificates under IRM 1.4.53.6.1.
• Property has been seized: the Revenue Officer and PALS, immediately.
• You submitted an offer: the offer unit identified on your acknowledgment letter.
• You disagree with a collection action: the group manager, then Appeals, using the manager conference process in Requesting a Manager Conference.
• The system is causing you hardship or is not responding: the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

Calling the right office the first time is half the battle. The other half is knowing what that office is allowed to do.

Outside Collection

Two offices outside Collection matter in almost every serious case. The Independent Office of Appeals reviews collection disputes. The Taxpayer Advocate Service helps when the system is not working; IRM 5.1.10.7.3 says Revenue Officers must provide Form 911 and explain a taxpayer's right to seek help from TAS.

Know the map. Then call the office that can act. See The IRS Collection Pipeline for how cases move among these offices.