STATE TAX LIEN

[Anonymous]

An old state lien has come back to haunt me.  Are these tax relief people any good.  I am living on SS and have recently had a stroke.  Any recourse for me?

[Anonymous]

How old is the lien? What state?

I ask because every state (that I know of) has an SoL on tax liens. Usually, it runs about 6-10 years. If your lien's older than that, you might be completely off the hook, period.

Otherwise, I'd not bother with those "tax relief" people unless you find one through AARP (or another non-profit org). Mainly because you'll end up paying oodles for something *you* can do yourself : offer the tax entity an "Offer in Compromise." You may have to provide proof of your income (basically, *why* you should be eligible for one), but you can remove most of the amount due by doing so. You can definitely negotiate ALL of the penalties off. And the penalties are usually what hurts the *most.*

At least, a few years back, it hurt *us* the most. Took the IRS about 5 years to realize that I made a calculation error: the original liability was like $250 - in the end, we owed over $1500. Ouch.

[smallfry]

Sorry to hear that annie. NJ never goes away if you don't pay state taxes. At least the Fed has a 10 year SOL. 

[Anonymous]

it's NY.  they did have an amnesty but you can't walk in and negotiate.  So you think I should talk to them myself.  I'm pretty weak and the worry is making me weaker.  The state (I haven't lived there in 9 years) is either going BK or on the brink.

The lien is about 12 years old.  It has to do with my business that failed.  Nightmare story.

Message Edited by casinoannie97 on 06-10-2009 07:09 AM

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I think you should go in and talk to them. I hate to sound so awful, but I think that having had a recent stroke would be a mitigating factor and would help encourage them to accept a mutually beneficial arrangement.

(I don't mean that to sound like you should exploit your own health issues, BTW, I just mean that it IS a mitigating factor - and since it's true and you don't need any additional stress, it should be mentioned - know what I mean?!)

FTR, for NY, the SoL on unpaid tax liens is 20 years (same as NJ, BTW - they *DO* have an SoL, albeit a REALLY long one). But I don't know if that applies to business related liens or just personal tax, though.

Just curious: this nightmare ... did the biz go under? Is it possible that you don't actually owe the taxes at all? I know that with the IRS, if you're a sole prop and you go out of biz, it's not that big of a deal to straighten out (from personal experience). I can't really see NY as being harsher than Unky Sam, yannow?