If a person has a federal tax lien judgment against them, what kinds of transactions does that reach into? Selling one’s home? The IRS goes to the front of the line, in front of other mortgage holders and ahead of the next purchase? Any other kinds of transactions, like car loans or sales, credit card debt, tax deferred savings, anything like that?
Can one get out of this by moving from state to state, or does its federal nature preclude that?
It’s not me, BTW.
If you have money in pretty much any legitimate financial institution or are employed, the IRS has access to that information.
In addition, many large companies especially utilities (power, internet, water) are looped in as well.
I rented a house for cash from a friend with a few rentals, turned on power, about 60 days later got a letter at that address from the IRS in regard to a past due balance.
In one house I rented, two IRS men came looking for the former tenant and wanting to know if I knew where she was. I had to show them my lease and ID before they believed I wasn’t her.
A real estate agent in New Jersey claimed an income of $35K. He then went down to Florida and paid $105K cash for an antique car! When the IRS came knocking and I asked how could he be so stupid, he said “It was in Florida. I didn’t think they’d find out.”
The IRS is a federal government agency. They can prosecute you in any state. Furthermore, most government agencies are reciprocal, meaning that you can be picked up by another branch for a crime.
My niece was married for about 2 years, to a guy who turned out to be an exceptionally sketchy individual. One of his many, many sketchy activities involved him filling out their taxes (filing jointly with her, and having her sign the completed forms), while significantly under-reporting his income (and, thus, his tax responsibility).
They’ve been divorced for about 5 years now (she lives in a completely different state from him, and has since remarried), and the IRS has figured out how much he under-reported (which is in the five figures). As the IRS doesn’t seem to be able to track him down (or his current income stream), they’ve has decided to go after my niece, as she had jointly filed with him for several years. At this point, the only thing that they’re doing is garnishing the tax refunds she’d otherwise receive, which, at her current income level / refund level, would take her literally decades to repay.
well Los Angeles county and the federal government put a lien against any tax return my father received for most of my life due to non payment of child support to pay back the public assistance we had to live on when we turned 18 the federal government decided that since me and by brother are disabled and getting ssi he could help pay for that too
Then some law changed and I was getting a split ssi and ssa check and ssa administration called me asked me a bunch of stuff saying that I was on total ssa because 1 it meant less paperwork 2 it was 400 dollars more than an ssi check and 3 it was coming straight off the top of my dads retirement
Dad worked for GM/Delco for 40 years and had some very sweet contracts during his career there … So I donate to the UAW once a year …
also theres no statue of limitations on child support either … MY uncle was nailed for almost 20 k for a child he had in a short teenage marriage and hadn’t seen since 1973… they took 200 a month out of his check for about 3 years until he had a big enough tax return to pay it off
Also like my aunt and stepmom found out don’t file jointly if your spouse owes any government agency because they’ll take yours too
Supposedly the irs is now the biggest collector of back child support …
More to the point, if somebody who recently got hit with a big lien suddenly announces moving to another state, does this suggest some sort of scheme to evade it? Is there any connection one should suspect? Are there any hazards other people around them should be on the lookout for (such as financial entanglement with them)?
I’m trying to interpret events.
There’s no reason why moving to a different state would cause you to elude the Feds any more than moving within a state, not telling anyone where you’re going, and never use any information that can be traced back to you wherever you move to.
Could be innocent, sure. As has been noted, moving from one state to another, in and of itself, is going to do nothing to evade an IRS lien.
However, is it possible that said move is step one in that individual’s plan to try to change identities in order to evade the IRS (and other creditors)? Sure, that’s also possible. Unless this was someone I trusted implicitly, I might well be hesitant to have any financial involvement with them.
For real estate, the IRS stands in line like everyone else. Otherwise, banks wouldn’t write mortgages. Assuming the mortgage is the oldest lien, the only higher priority liens are real estate taxes and (in some states) some condo fees. Even they must record their lien within a year or so of the taxes/fees becoming delinquent.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand. What does your Dad’s retirement have to do with your SSI payment? 
Normally you qualify for SS by working.
But if you are an adult that has been disabled since childhood,
Remember that every government employee gets their paycheck from the money collected in taxes. So it’s in their own best interest to actively cooperate with the IRS. Some people might hesitate, due to personal feelings toward the IRS. But the policy of their department will certainly encourage cooperation.
I have personally known several women whose ex-husbands never paid any child support, and they were unable to collect from him until he tapped into an income stream very few people would be willing to pass up, and that was Social Security - and she got half of those checks and probably would until one or the other died. I also know of a man who may be getting half of his ex-wife’s SS checks, for the same reason (TYVM, RBG!)
You’d have to leave the country to dodge the IRS, and even then, that’s not a guarantee.
p.s. More than once, I have heard about (usually) women whose exes weren’t paying but they knew he had the money, and he was gainfully employed but using a fake SSN. Yeah, like you’re gonna get away with that nowadays.
Bottom feeding lawyers are usually not all that smart. Switching states might be enough to throw them off. Somewhere on line is a very boring piece of text on the range of federal liens.
Find it and read it til you understand it.
basically im getting my ssa (its around 1075 ) payment from his retirement the ssa is just the middleman ……apparently they take a years worth at once before he gets his and doles it out to me every month
One spouse can request innocent spouse relief (for tax debt) or the similar injured spouse relief for other forms of debt (such as child support) owed by the other spouse, and the IRS is actually pretty good about granting this, which means they will NOT take the portion of the refund or other assets belonging to the person not at fault. (However, if you live in a community property state, those laws can impact how much relief the IRS is able to grant.)