Hi Everybody, The problem is this... My friend has a Ohio State Tax lien filed in Oct. 1993 on his credit report.. He has no idea what the lien is for. It is for $80,000.00 . He found this out when he bought a new car. Obviously he is not one to check his credit report. Any ideas where to start. Do Tax liens age off of your report? Thank you for any help.
FIRST OFF---find out (WHO EXACTLY) is reporting it... Just because something is on a CREDIT REPORT DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE!!! One should know if they forgot to pay $80,000 in taxes!!! Has he NOT paid INCOME or PROPERTY TAXES FOR LIKE 10-20 YEARS??? $80,000 for just average citizens DOES NOT HAPPEN IN JUST ONE OR TWO YEARS!!!
GEORGE is right. He needs to dispute as "not mine." If they come back and verify it, he needs to ask where and how they verified. Tax liens don't go away. For that amount of money, I would think they would have come after him by now. What state does he live in? I bet someone punched in a wrong SSN somewhere.
Thanks for the replies. The state is Ohio. The county he works in reported it. He called the auditor office and they said they couldn't tell him anything on the phone. He needed to come to the auditor's office.
Keep us posted. I'd be interested in finding out how someone has owed $80K in taxes for 5 years, lived in the same state not know about it.
Re: Re: Re: Tax Lien Why is this a bad idea?Originally posted by inforest He needs to come in to the auditor's office.
Re: Re: Re: Tax Lien If they won't say ANYTHING on the phone...HOW CAN YOU GET ANY INFORMATION EXCEPT GO IN PERSON... Do you think the POLICE will be there waiting??? I DON'T THINK SO!!!
Re: Re: Re: Tax Lien Not the police. Even worse. Process server. We do this at my office all day long. People show up to find out why their property is listed on the web in a tax deed sale, as soon as they give their name at the front counter, the deputy comptroller serves them with papers to appear. The clerks at the counter are told the same thing. "If any one calls about tax assesments, get their name, and tell them to come in." If you came in to my office, owing 80k, you're going to get a lot of attention. This is exaclty how Willie Nelson got picked up.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Tax Lien AND SOMEBODY IN THE "REAL WORLD" OWES $80,000??? OR IS THAT A PLOY??? Like the POLICE get criminals to show up for a "FINAL PHASE" drawing for a "TRIP OF A LIFETIME" and they all get BUSTED...
Re: Re: Re: Re: Tax Lien If your friend was surprised to find the lien then it is likely a typo, a trick to get him to pay what really is a lesser amount or they lost/never processed his tax return and made a typo. Probably penalty fees are added as well, if it is, in fact his lien and not another's mistakenly reported as his. I got the same surprise. Got my infiles from a friend at the mortgage company because I had not yet learned how to get my own files quicky via the net and knew I had some work to do.....was anxious to get started because I had discovered these credit help boards (smile). But lo and behold! One tax lien (turned out to be two merged into one account) reported by two government offices from a state I ** used ** to live in over 5 years ago! Well weeks went by as I worked on other items on my reports, researched info and posted for help with this lien. I found out, finally that I do not owe (see, it can still be on your reports until the matter is cleared up-guilty until proven innocent). What happened: They did not have my records for filing state taxes for two years in a row and said no surprise it only showed up a few months ago (per the date on the reports). This is because they give time for extensions even if you did not ask for one, file it away and it goes through various permutations and hoops blah, blah blah-they try to find you, send mail to the last known address...anyway it is a long process and also, I was told, because of gov't budget cuts it takes a little longer than it used to to get to the final 2 offices that the CRA's comb for info and then report! I was lucky. I e-mailed the taxpayer advocate for that state (a tax info savvy poster at another board is an angel for telling me about this option...bless him!) who was not at all, it turned out, a lackey for the government. She actually called me a few weeks after I sent the e-mail and we had a very civil chat and she gave me the info I needed to proceed to clear this up, offices, phone numbers, explained stuff- a very professional young lady who never once made me feel like a dunce (!). When I spoke to the state's collection office (usually a no no to talk to any CA, but in this case it would have been stupid not to unless I was evading and did not want to go to jail-NOT!)....Bottom line- I was tagged for owing for two years plus penalties, even though did not really owe in the end. ***And in my case, because I hold a professional license regulated by the state I would be audited/tagged anyway at some point, I was told. That was something I never knew before so that may serve to help some of you reading this. Anyway, the info they had and the little bit that I could scrape up from the house files both pointed to the fact that I did not owe after all (p.o. [po'] poor during those few years). But I have to refile using a form for people like me who had the gall to move to another state before the year was up. And they did not have my filings on record. ( I made sure to ask if any other years were missing before we hung up! They said, no). So since I did that and was so very poor during those few years (am not rich now but in a different financial place re: job/income) I have to refile. I asked the clerk how I should report my income because there were exchanges for room and board, only a few weeks of working over the table (some under the table but I did not mention that because I could not ever prove this income and was not about to try-no way!) and a lot of camping out. She stayed neutral but her response basically was for me to put down what I think I made. $50 okay to say? If that's what you made. $100, $200 okay to write down? If that's what you made, she says....So anyway....she is going to mail me a copy of what I earned that is on record with them, a very small amount. I just have to write it down and send the tax form back and then in about three or four months (due to budget cuts/poor staffing she told me-in rare cases 6 months) they will release the lien and I can remind them, if they forget, to send me a letter that I can copy and send to the CRA's for deletion of this nasty little item. Yes, I have to wait but that is a much better scenario than never getting the sucker off my reports. Considering that this is the government we are dealing with, that anything was resolved within such a short amount of time is no less than a miracle. And, in any case, I am not planning to apply for any major credit until late spring/early summer (need a new vehicle). Sooooooo-it is entirely possible your friend does not have the problem he thinks he may have...but I would avoid a visit to the auditor unless I had a lawyer-better yet, hire a lawyer or if he qualifies he can acquire the service of his county's legal-aid attorney's and seek some advice. Also most large law schools have free law clinics fairly frequently with experts on hand in different areas of the law. But one way or the other it has to be dealt with. Becaseu there is no statute of limitations on taxes owed. And it will not be erased from a credit report until 7 years after it is paid is someone does owe and pays up Good Luck to him! And keep us posted.
Re: Re: Tax Lien Hmmm ... Sketchy info, but I will give it a shot. Why they want your friend to go in person I don't know. It is possible that the County makes all people go to the office in person (even legal researchers). If your friend is paranoid and can't afford to pay for a lawyer or isn't poor enough to get one for free, he could sign over Limited Power of Attorney (available at an decent office supply store) to a friend or family member and have them go in his place. The facts ... The state is Ohio and the lien was filed by County. Which county would be the next question and that is probably to personal to post here. So, I will guess and put a few links in my post to get you started. Just a wild guess here ... Franklin County First Speculation ... Being as the lien was reported by the County and the County Auditor has something to do with the record, I would guess that it is either Real Estate Taxes or Special Assessments. http://www.co.franklin.oh.us/recorder/liens.htm If it is Franklin County, it looks as though they do provide online access to records. http://www.co.franklin.oh.us/recorder/ Of course, any further speculation would be a waste of time. If your friend really wants to avoid the County Auditors office like the plague, he might be able to get more detail on the tax lien from Dolan Information (now LexisNexis). Dolan Information is a CRA that gathers public records. Tax lien records frequently make it to the CRA's through Dolan Information. Your friend can call Dolan Information and say that one of the big three CRA's has a tax lien listed on his consumer report and indicated that they uses Dolan for verification of liens (true statement). He can then ask if Dolan has a lien record on him. Dolan will probably have a more complete record than the CRA's. He will have to fax a formal request in with proof of identity (a copy of both sides of Social Security card) for them to respond. http://www.dolaninformation.com/consumers.cfm Sooner or later, someone will have to go to the County office and get more lien info. BTW, MoneyElf, Thanks for the compliment (if it was directed towards me - CD). I am glad to see you are making progress.
Re: Re: Tax Lien Thanks for all the advise. I have since found out the following. I went to recorders office online. I found that the actual filing was made by the State Dept of Taxation. Further research revealed that they refiled the case as of Aug 2003. My friends exwife and he were both listed as defendants. The kicker is, the refile was for $269.00, not $80000.00. My friend did have two different derogs on his credit report, one for $269.00 and the other for $80K. I gave him all the info from the recorder office, case number,etc. He said he would call today. He had no plans of going to the auditors office. Hopefully the 80K was a typo. Also, the $269.00 was supposedly to be paid by the ex in the divorce agreement. Obviously she never did. Will keep you posted
