You will need to contact your local tax office to find out why they have placed a tax lien on you. Then, once you have that information, you will be in a better position to know what to do about it.
A tax lien gives the county, state or federal government the right to possess your property if you are behind in the payment of taxes, whether it is property tax or income tax. If the property is subsequently sold to pay off taxes, you may also default on your mortgage.
A tax lien will affect your credit score, which can have a negative impact on getting any future credit, and perhaps on getting a job, and will stay on your credit report for seven years.
Recently, the National Taxpayer Advocate has accused the IRS of over using tax liens, and of inflicting unnecessary harm onto taxpayers who are struggling financially.
They claim that the practice is not an effective way of collecting back taxes because very often they are filed against those who have no assets. This means that no money can be collected from them, and yet it makes it harder for the person to be able to get back onto their feet, financially, and so is only effective in making people suffer.
In 2010, the IRS filed 1.1 million tax liens against taxpayers, an increase of 14 per cent from the previous year. In 1999, there were only 168,000 tax liens filed.
The IRS has also been heavily criticized because it has not undertaken any research to find out whether their heavy handed approach to filing tax liens does anything to increase revenue, or to boost future tax collections.
The ombudsman is recommending that the IRS look at other ways of recouping unpaid tax, such as working out repayment schemes.
A tax lien gives the county, state or federal government the right to possess your property if you are behind in the payment of taxes, whether it is property tax or income tax. If the property is subsequently sold to pay off taxes, you may also default on your mortgage.
A tax lien will affect your credit score, which can have a negative impact on getting any future credit, and perhaps on getting a job, and will stay on your credit report for seven years.
Recently, the National Taxpayer Advocate has accused the IRS of over using tax liens, and of inflicting unnecessary harm onto taxpayers who are struggling financially.
They claim that the practice is not an effective way of collecting back taxes because very often they are filed against those who have no assets. This means that no money can be collected from them, and yet it makes it harder for the person to be able to get back onto their feet, financially, and so is only effective in making people suffer.
In 2010, the IRS filed 1.1 million tax liens against taxpayers, an increase of 14 per cent from the previous year. In 1999, there were only 168,000 tax liens filed.
The IRS has also been heavily criticized because it has not undertaken any research to find out whether their heavy handed approach to filing tax liens does anything to increase revenue, or to boost future tax collections.
The ombudsman is recommending that the IRS look at other ways of recouping unpaid tax, such as working out repayment schemes.
