Articles Tagged with Federal tax lien

Shortly after you fail to comply with an official demand for payment of your tax debt from the IRS, a secret lien attaches to all of your real property and personal property. However, the IRS can also file an official notice of federal tax lien on your home, and other property at the county recorder’s office, which puts the public on notice of the tax lien. This can seriously interfere with your ability to sell your home because any buyer would have to take the home subject to the lien.

However, the IRS will remove the lien—known as a lien discharge—in certain situations. By removing the lien, the IRS is giving up its right to this specific piece of property, which can be assigned a specific monetary value. The IRS will generally only give up this right if it receives something of equal value, or if there is sufficient equity in your other assets to convince the IRS that it will be able to get the money from your other assets.

For example, if you want to sell your home for $400,000, and you owe $300,000 on the first mortgage, the IRS has a lien interest of $100,000 on your home. If you want the IRS to give up this interest, you will have to either give $100,000 in value or show that you have other assets satisfactory to the IRS that will satisfy their claim.