<prompt> Human: Disclaimer: I am using a throwaway account to keep my identity hidden just in case someone I know sees this. Also if I need to go to a different subreddit I will do so immediately, just let me know and I will change asap.Alright, to start this out I live in california, I am an individual who is still living with parents and is going to community college. In my spare time I have been working part-time jobs for nearly a whole year.When I created my bank account I was a teenager and my father made it a joint account during that time. This is what my bank suggested to my family so my parents could keep track of my expenditures and income. I had no idea about any of this until now when I got my account levied, before I was led to believe that I owned the account. This is why I never got his name removed from my account as I thought it was my account in the first place. Fast-Forward 4 years and my father has now lost his job and could no longer afford to pay the taxes that he owed.This year was the very first time that I ever filed my taxes, and doing this apparently caught the attention of the IRS that my joint account holder owed taxes out the wazoo. What I have read so far is that because it is a joint account they do not have to prove that the money in there is even remotely owned by the person who owes the debt. I have also been reading that I can file something that shows the person who owes the debt has no affiliation to the account whatsoever which is true because he has never taken from nor deposited anything into the bank account. Conclusion:My question is, what are the steps that I need to be taking in order to get my money back? I am already consolidating my deposit receipts for checks and anything else that I can get ahold of. Unfortunately though I have not been keeping track of everything like I should have been doing. Obviously Im a little bit frantic right now as I have no idea how Im going to pay for my tuition next semester without that money. I mainly just wanted to get this off of my chest in order to relieve some serious stress that this has now caused as I think Im doing everything I can for now. Also this is obviously not the best place to go for advice however its too late at night to go anywhere for proper advice and I want to get this figured out ASAP. tldr; Had a joint account with my parent when I first opened it as a teenager, the individual didnt pay taxes years later, account got levied by IRS as the parents name had been attached to the joint account. How can I get my money back?Assistant: Sounds like you could be in luck here:Because minors in many situations cannot open bank accounts in their own names, the bank accounts list a parents name, even when the children are the owners of the funds deposited. A levy on such an account to collect a parents tax liability would be a wrongful levy, unless it can be shown that a federal tax lien encumbered the funds before they were deposited in the childs account.Human: That is definitely a silver-lining right there! Thank you so much for finding this!Assistant: I was all prepared to write something about how you were probably in bad shape because of how the IRS treats joint accounts, but decided to double check their documentation. It seems like they have some sympathy for this situation; the result might depend on your age at this point. Good luck!Human: I dont doubt that my chances are slim, that doesnt mean Im not going to do everything I can do to try and get my property back. I am never trusting most of my money to banks ever again.  <response>: Get the deposit record of the account and show it all coming from your paychecks and deposits also for your evidence.Edit: This is not a bank problem, this is a scumbag parent problem. Do not blame the banks. 