Early in June I mailed a letter to the office of the IRS commissioner in Washington requesting that my two unpaid IRS tax liens be withdrawn so I would be able to obtain credit to pay them. This wasn't written by a lawyer, it was a simple letter written based on what was clearly stated in the IRS regulations which changed in June of 2001. I received a followup letter indicating I should hear from them within 30-45 days. I got a phone call this morning. The withdrawal has been APPROVED!!! Letters are being sent to me, to the courthouse and to the 3 CRAs. I have 60 days to pay the amount owed which is about $2500. The basis for the approval was to facilitate the collection of the taxes. My issue was getting the darn things OFF OF MY REPORTS and if I had simply paid them and gotten a release, they would have remained for 7 years AFTER I paid them. Here's a thread in which this was discussed. It contains the links to the IRS regs. So for those of you who have unpaid IRS liens that you CAN afford to pay, there IS a way to get them off of your reports. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=193206#post193206 THANK YOU to the original poster who provided this info on Bayhouse that several of us took advantage of. It was a Godsend! DemPooches
Congrats!!!! I talked to a Taxpayer Advocate who is helping me with a big problem. Turns out that there is a lien filed but I never knew about it. It's filed nationwide or something but it's not attached to anything in particular. So, he tells me there are a couple of ways to go: pay only the reassesed tax & interest, file a dispute about the lien since I never got any notice or other paperwork about it and then when they bill me for the penalty fees, file an appeal to have them abated OR pay the full amount due (taxes, interest and fees) which would add another $5k and then file an appeal to have the penalty fees abated and refunded. The benefit of the second option is that when the balance goes to $0 then the lien automatically goes away.
Thanks for the responses folks. This is one of the most encouraging things I've seen lately for those in situations similar to ours. I hope many others will take this opportunity the IRS provides. We don't get many such chances to have major negatives removed, and its particularly nice that this one didn't practically require a law degree to muddle through. DemPooches
Dempooches, Just a question for clarification....I agree that one of the reasons to release an IRS lien is to facilitate the collection of a tax. For example, the IRS has a lien that is attached to your home. You cannot sell your home because of the attached lien. In order for you to sell your house and possibly pay the lien the IRS needs to lift the lien. Thus you sell the house and pay the IRS. this is not uncommon or unusual. Now my question to you is you must have promised something in return for the release...no? And if so I think it is important for people here to understand that. In other words they IRS doesn't release a lien "to facilitate the collection of a tax" and then not get paid anything...right? I'm not disputing your story just asking for more clarification. Thanks. clc
ooooops! sorry :+{{{{ been reading the new bk reform act too long...its effecting my eyesight! Thanx for the correction. clc
Let me make a clarification based on a post above. I am not receiving a "release" of these liens. A release is something entirely different. In my discussion with the IRS rep today I clarified that point. My liens are being withdrawn. The status with the CRAs will be just as if the liens had never existed. They are going to be removed from my credit files, never to return. I don't want this thread to create confusion between a released lien and a withdrawn one. A released lien can still stay on the credit report for 7 years. Had we paid the liens and requested a release we would have saved a couple of months of interest and it would have cost us another 7 years with the liens on our report. (Unless we could manage to dispute them off at some point.) To us, this was an unacceptable outcome. (The "released" notation on a lien will allow for buying and selling real property, but it still is a major derogatory with the CRAs.) As I indicated from the time I first posted about this issue, my goal was getting the liens removed from my credit report. Paying was not the problem, a good outcome was. For anyone else in our situation with an unpaid IRS lien and the resources to pay it, this is the way to keep from being punished in the credit file for another 7 years after you do pay. Everyone's situation is different and for many this option isn't going to be available. For example, it won't be available to anyone who has already paid off the lien. (Unless they can think of a convincing reason as to why the withdrawal of a paid and released lien would be in the best interest of both the USA and the taxpayer.) I know for those who have spent years dealing with IRS issues this seems almost too easy to be true. But in this case, it IS true. The simple method really did work. This withdrawal required one letter to the IRS commissioner. Basically I said if they would withdraw the liens it would allow me to obtain financing to pay the taxes owed. I indicated in my letter that 60 days would be sufficient for me to make the necessary arrangements. Anyone who is in the same situation we were should read the earlier thread, study the few pages which contained the appropriate IRS regs and compose a letter which conforms with the requirements outlined there. Amazingly, the IRS has given us a way to get this done easily. I sincerely hope anyone else in a similar situation to ours will take advantage of the opportunity. DemPooches
Dempooches, Thank you for the clarification...here is a repost of mine from June 17th re:your irs lien dempooches, the irs will withdraw a lien (meaning it never existed) if it was procedurally incorrect. OR if you want to finance the payment of the tax with equity in the property to which the lien attaches...BUT (and this is the clincher) the equity must be 2x the taxes due...and if they do withdraw on this condition they will refile the lien lickety-split if you don't pay them...and they will get nasty! after the reforms of '98 the irs was supposed to be the friendlier irs...but that term is relative...because b4 the hearings in '97 and the reforms in '98 they were monsters...now they are mini-monsters. Remember that while you are waiting for the irs to respond the meter is ticking...interest and penalties...IMO you should just spen a couple of hundred $$$s and get the advice of a professional..either a tax CPA or a tax atty...if the CPA is an EA which means "enrolled agent" he is certified by the irs to represent taxpayers in front of the irs. Also due to reforms their is EA/client privilege...which is just like atty/client privilege...so a CPA/EA does not have to divulge any info to the irs. good luck, clc I checked back to the code and it does state that the equity in the property that the lien attaches to must be 2X the amount of the irs lien. Just wanted to make sure all the bases were covered here. clc PS congrats on your dealings with the IRS as it ain't easy!
clc, Our liens were not attached to ANY specific property. There was NO EQUITY INVOLVED IN THIS. No equity of any sort. Equity was NOT a requirement. Equity was never discussed in any way. This was as simple as I stated. I asked them to withdraw so I could obtain financing to pay the taxes. I indicated 60 days would be sufficient for me to do so. That was it. I too want to make it clear to others that this was just as simple as I indicated. There was nothing hard or complicated. It was an amazing result with incredibly little effort and I give all the credit to the original poster at Bayhouse for bringing this remarkable tool to our attention. DemPooches
I'm EXTREMELY familiar with the IRS. Almost became an enrolled agent. lol I do know that if you ask 10 IRS people about the procedure on this, you'll get 35 different answers. It really does depend on the IRS employee almost as much as the procedure.
