Question about Transunion report: New York resident with paid tax lien 5+ years ago.

[Anonymous]

Hello. This is my first time posting here. I was living abroad and was informed I had a tax lien which I paid immediately when I found out about it upon returning home for a visit. It was filed in May 2009 and paid in September 2009 The amount was $380. I read online that for New York state residents:

• Satisfied judgments remain 5 years from the date filed.
• Paid collections remain 5 years from the date of last activity

This tax lien does not appear on my Experian or Equifax credit reports just on my Transunion and the score is significantly lower. I contacted Transunion and they sent me a letter stating the estimated month and year this item will be removed is  08/2016. This doesn't seem right to me. Any clue why this is still on my report?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello. This is my first time posting here. I was living abroad and was informed I had a tax lien which I paid immediately when I found out about it upon returning home for a visit. It was filed in May 2009 and paid in September 2009 The amount was $380. I read online that for New York state residents:

• Satisfied judgments remain 5 years from the date filed.
• Paid collections remain 5 years from the date of last activity

This tax lien does not appear on my Experian or Equifax credit reports just on my Transunion and the score is significantly lower. I contacted Transunion and they sent me a letter stating the estimated month and year this item will be removed is  08/2016. This doesn't seem right to me. Any clue why this is still on my report?

Thanks!

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Not sure why it's not on your other reports but tax liens stay on your report for 7 years after they are satisfied.  If this is a Federal tax lien you can request it to be withdrawn with Form 12277.  If it's a NY tax lien you will have to check with them about the possibility of a withdrawal.

[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello. This is my first time posting here. I was living abroad and was informed I had a tax lien which I paid immediately when I found out about it upon returning home for a visit. It was filed in May 2009 and paid in September 2009 The amount was $380. I read online that for New York state residents:

• Satisfied judgments remain 5 years from the date filed.
• Paid collections remain 5 years from the date of last activity

This tax lien does not appear on my Experian or Equifax credit reports just on my Transunion and the score is significantly lower. I contacted Transunion and they sent me a letter stating the estimated month and year this item will be removed is  08/2016. This doesn't seem right to me. Any clue why this is still on my report?

Thanks!

---

Not sure why it's not on your other reports but tax liens stay on your report for 7 years after they are satisfied.  If this is a Federal tax lien you can request it to be withdrawn with Form 12277.  If it's a NY tax lien you will have to check with them about the possibility of a withdrawal.

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I believe OP is referring to the NY State FCRA, which does actually have a 5-year provision for paid collections, charge offs, and satisfied judgements under $50k... but it doesn't apply to tax liens.  See both bolded sections below.

N.Y. GBS. LAW § 380-j : NY Code - Section 380-J: Prohibited information

(f) (1) Except as authorized under paragraph two of this subdivision, no consumer reporting agency may make any consumer report containing any of the following items of information.

(i) bankruptcies which, from date of adjudication of the most recent bankruptcy, antedate the report by more than fourteen years;

(ii) judgements which, from date of entry, antedate the report by more than seven years or until the governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is the longer period; or judgments which, from date of entry, having been satisfied within a five year period from such entry date, shall be removed from the report five years after such entry date;

(iii) paid tax liens which, from date of payment, antedate the report by more than seven years or, a paid, satisfied or vacated tax lien involving a purchaser, transferee or assignee in a bulk sale transaction who has been deemed liable by the state tax commission for sales taxes due from a seller, transferrer or assignor under subdivision (c) of section eleven hundred forty-one of the tax law, where the receipt by a credit reporting agency from such purchaser, transferee or assignee of a notice, or true copy thereof, from the state tax commission to such purchaser, transferee or assignee that his liability has been wholly paid or satisfied or no longer exists, antedates the report by more than thirty days;

(iv) accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss which antedate the report by more than seven years; or accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss, which have been paid and which antedate the report by more than five years;

(v) records of conviction of crime which, from date of disposition, release, or parole, antedate the report by more than seven years;

(vi) information regarding drug or alcoholic addiction where the last reported incident relating to such addiction antedates the consumer report or investigative consumer report by more than seven years;

(vii) information relating to past confinement in a mental institution where the date of last confinement antedates the report by more than seven years; or

(viii) any other adverse information which antedates the report by more than seven years.

(2) The provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to:

(i) a credit transaction involving, or which may reasonably be expected to involve, a principal amount of fifty thousand dollars or more;

(ii) the underwriting of life insurance involving, or which may reasonably be expected to involve, a face amount of fifty thousand dollars or more; or

(iii) the employment of any individual at an annual salary which equals, or which may reasonably be expected to equal twenty-five thousand dollars, or more.

[Anonymous]

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Not sure why it's not on your other reports but tax liens stay on your report for 7 years after they are satisfied.  If this is a Federal tax lien you can request it to be withdrawn with Form 12277.  If it's a NY tax lien you will have to check with them about the possibility of a withdrawal.

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I have a CA tax lien that only shows on Experian.  Why, I don't know.  But it is advantageous to app for cards that don't pull from EXP.

[RobertEG]

Tax liens and other public records are not "reported" to the CRAs in the normal fashion by a creditor or debt collector.

They wend their way into your credit report as a result of public records searches commissioned by the CRAs, who do that in order to improve the completeness of their files, and thus the potential value of their credit reports.

Some searches are more complete than others.

It is not uncommon for public record information to be picked up by less than all of the CRAs.

[jacksont1981]

Same boat as you. I have a paid NY State Tax lien on Transunion that will not come off for a while. But on Experian and Equifax, they have it listed as a satisfied judgement and thus will come off in 2016 which is must sooner than Transunion. So weird how they list it but better for me since it will come off earlier than Transunion.