USA Today
IRS liens filed against taxpayers jumped 60% since the start of the national recession, according to a new federal report that urges the tax agency to moderate the collection policy and study its effectiveness.
The IRS filed more than 1 million liens in federal fiscal year 2010, the highest in nearly two decades and a spike from the nearly 684,000 filed in the year ahead of the recession's December 2007 start, according to the annual report to Congress issued Wednesday by the National Taxpayer Advocate.
Although the IRS has taken some steps to aid financially struggling taxpayers, it "has continued the trend toward more lien filings despite the worst economy in at least a generation" — with serious financial impact on some of those unable to pay, the taxpayer advocate report concluded.
"Lien filings can badly damage or destroy a taxpayer's creditworthiness because they are picked up by the credit-rating agencies and retained on the taxpayer's credit reports for seven years from the date the tax liability is resolved, or longer if it is not resolved," wrote Nina Olson, who heads the Taxpayer Advocate's office.
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