Silent Automatic Lien

  

Categories: Credit

A quiet but deadly debt collection device, dealt out by the IRS.

You run a nutritional supplement business focused on a salivation suppressant product for heavy droolers. You’ve fallen on hard times. You don’t have enough money to meet all your obligations, so you start skimping on your taxes. The IRS doesn’t just wait for you to pay. If you ignore their series of increasingly nasty letters, they might move to a second stage of the collection process: the silent automatic lien.

With this procedure, they put a lien on your property, making it possible for them to seize items if you continue to shirk your tax obligations. The lien is referred to as "silent" because it doesn’t show up in public records. It doesn’t affect your credit score or interrupt your ability to do business. The IRS is just using it as leverage to get you to pay.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is the Fair Debt Collectio...1 Views

00:00

Finance allah shmoop what is the fare debt collection practices

00:07

act fair debt collection That doesn't sound like a euphemism

00:13

for the guys with the baseball bats who knocked gently

00:15

on your door and talk with you quietly about your

00:18

poker losses there Well that whole goodfellas thing became such

00:23

a problem that the feds had to get involved in

00:25

established rules as to how far those guys with the

00:28

baseball bats could go and they came up with the

00:31

following a they can't use them the baseball bats to

00:35

hit your knee caps anyway if you don't pay your

00:37

bills be they have to listen to your pushback on

00:40

like a safe space is literally safe Space is not

00:44

like the kind of uc berkeley so they can't call

00:47

you at work and castle you thereabout bills if you

00:50

tell them not to and see they can't call you

00:53

at home in the middle of the night or bang

00:55

on your door at two a m and wake the

00:57

kids and terrify you about your bills that you owe

01:00

you owe well basically this act which became law in

01:02

nineteen seventy seven established the notion that even if you

01:06

really are a total deadbeat somebody who was stupid enough

01:09

to loan you money like you don't pay your bills

01:12

you promised to pay them and you just don't you

01:15

don't pam back You don't care about your honor self

01:18

respect you're a deadbeat but the feds took the perspective

01:21

that wealth Somebody was stupid enoughto loan you that money

01:24

in the first place and they can on li yu's

01:27

quote fair means unquote to collect the money you promised

01:31

to pay them back So what's fair Well this is

01:33

fair and this is not fair They're not they're they're

01:38

not fair All right you get the picture paid your 00:01:41.055 --> [endTime] bills

Up Next

Finance: What are Collection Agencies?
12 Views

What are Collection Agencies? Collection agencies are debt collection companies that specialize in recovery of overdue or defaulted debt obligation...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)