Was Your Tax Lien Waived?
According to a new report by the Treasury Inspector General, the IRS has waived essentially $1.4 billion in delinquent taxes between 2002 and 2008 by failing to file federal tax liens. In order to protect its claims against delinquent taxpayers, the IRS must file a federal tax lien, which establishes the IRS’ priority among other creditors. However, in certain cases, the IRS can decide not to file a tax lien. When the IRS agent decides not to file a tax lien, they must document the taxpayer’s file to state the basis for their decision not to file the tax lien.
According to this report, the IRS agents did not document the rationale for not filing liens for an estimated 2297 taxpayers who owed $72 million in delinquent taxes. The report also found that the IRS did not file liens on closed taxpayer accounts based upon a certain dollar amount. This certain dollar amount represented taxpayer’s whose accounts were closed based upon being currently noncollectible for tax years 2002 through 2008. These taxpayers were unable to pay anything on their accounts and consequently, the IRS did not conduct any collection activity on their accounts. As a result of this report, the Treasury Inspector General has made eight recommendations to ensure that in the future all IRS agents document their reasons for not filing tax liens against delinquent taxpayers.
If you are concerned about outstanding taxes due to the IRS, please call Florida tax attorney Mary E. King at (941) 906-7585 to discuss your options.