Does owing $$$ to the IRS affect your credit score?

[appstate]

I owe $7000 to the IRS from 2006.  I'm paying a monthly installment and will pay it all off by March 09.  I've looked at my credit report many times and never see anything about the IRS.  But my credit score is in the tank- 622.

I have about $18k in CC debt that I am paying off slowly but surely.  I don't have a car note as of last month.

[haulingthescoreup]

Look in the area called "public records." Do you see anything there?

A judgment would show up there. If you're paying them on a plan that didn't go to judgment status, I think you're OK. But I am not anywhere even near the room in which the experts on this hang out, so I'd ready to be corrected!

[llecs]

IRS will only report if it is through a lein. Even then, you might get lucky and not have that report at all, as what happened to me a few yrs back.

Utilization is about 30% of your FICO score. Total your CC debt and divide that into your total CLs. That figure expressed as a percentage is utilization. Ideally, you want it reporting less than 10% for each CC and of course overall, and you'd want at least 1/2 of your open CCs reporting at $0.