112 Point Drop

[PRILEY]

Two friggin state tax liens for 07 and 08 penaltys just showed up on my report. They were filed in June. Thank God I got my refi done before they showed up. They were for $485 and $1187. I paid them and haven"t gotten a release yet but my score went from 774 to 662 Geesh I didn't even know about them. I could have put them on a CC even. I'm so upset. seems for the last four years I've spent so much time and energy cleaning up my credit and it all crumbles over a dumb mistake.

[Anonymous]

Oh, darn.  That's amazing.  I'm sorry.

So that the rest of us can sleep at night, can you tell us how you could have a tax lien, yet not know about it?

I'm not trying to rub salt in the wound, I just feel a little dumbfounded and wonder how this happens to good folks that are trying to do things right.

I found out that I didn't file my tax return for 1998 - and I found it out during BK court in 03.  WHAT????  How could I not know that?????

We were in the middle of a wedding in April 99 - right when it was due.

And I was also in the middle of a move with lots of boxes at that same time.

And then we had lots more boxes with our next (cross-country) move in 00.

I was sure I had filed!  Duh!!!!  Of course I filed.  I always file.  I have filed for you-don't-wanna-know-how-many decades.

So I had to go through all my boxes (yes I had a few boxes that were still unpacked - but lets not embarass me beyond the point I can humanly handle) and lo and behold!  There was my tax return, filled out, forms attached, signed, in the envelope, and ready to be mailed.

And I was due a refund!!!! 

Of course, the refund was no longer to be had.  However, if I had owed them money, the bill would still be valid - and with interest accruing as well.

Okay, so now you know my story.

I hope you'll share yours.  

[rom828]

I feel your pain, PRILEY!

In 2005, a  1998 state tax lien of $518  showed up on my report.  It showed released as of 2004. 

I didn't recognize this debt, couldn't find anything in tax records about it, but at the time I didn't really understand FICO scoring and just how negative this was, so I didn't do much to fight it.

After really getting involved on this forum a couple of years later, I decided to contact my  state tax dept to get particulars.  I was advised the lien was filed in 1998 and was settled by 'offset'  (payment from a refund) in 2003 and got released in 2004.    I advised the agent I had nothing in my records to indicate any sort of payment was issued from my 2003 (or 2004)  state (or federal) refund and that I had nothing in my records about a 1998 lien. 

To explain all the back and forth would take HOURS, shorter version:  all I could ever find out was this lien that I didn't even know I had,  went to collections and then supposedly was paid by a refund (6 yrs later(?!)  and that they had no further records because it had all been turned over to the state collections dept (?!) and it would have to be settled with clerk of court.  Clerk of court just refered me to their web site that did indeed show a 1998 lien with 'released' stamped on it in 2004.  The state tax agent could offer no explanation as to why/how I rever received info about the lien not how it could show as paid/released when my records did not indicate such.

I tried disputing with CRAs to no avail because they simply get info from the same  website.

I'm relating this saga to  address   beammeup's question  about how people can have a tax lien and not know it.

Although I'm fully aware that there are people  out there who  would just ignore tax notices (hoping they'll go away, I guess) or who are just not very conscientious about their bills,  I honestly never received anything about a lien, it doesn't jive with my records and I absolutely would never ignore anything to do with a taxing authority.  I truly believe this was reported on me in error and or I never got proper notice,  but it became just too big for me to fight.

It could certainly be the same kind of thing with PRILEY, because I'm sure if you have scores in the upper 700s, you don't ignore something as serious as a tax bill.

And I'm really sorry, PRILEY, that something like this has happened to you.

This  does put you in that nasty PR bucket,  which indeed really hurts your score.

I know a PR  is supposed to stay on your record for 7 yrs from date paid/released, but my understanding is that it hurts less as it ages, so I guess there's some solace there (though a 100+ loss is probably really hard to deal with!).

[Anonymous]

I did not now it until several years later since lien was filed right away and I wasn't seeking new credit for a while.

Problem was that my additional tax payment was received and check cashed by Department of Revenue, but they recorded payment with first digit of my social security as 2 instead of 3 so my account never got credit for the payment. Situation was further complicated by fact that I moved and my forwarding address had expired by time they began sending notices more than a year later.

While it did not take too long to get issue resolved with state dept of revenue, it did take several letters to get removed from county clerk's lien book. What a pain!

Good luck PRILEY with a quick resolution to your situation and I certainly understand the aggravation.

Moral of story, all sorts of bad things can happen with our credit reporting system because it involves humans and computers. Only you, the consumer, have the incentive to get your data correct and in some cases you won't even know what's bad out there. Neither the reporting nor scoring agencies suffer any penalties for incorrect information, and it amazes me the number of errors and inconsistencies that I've found on my report over the years. Yet it appears that this system is relied upon as "gospel" by the credit powers-to-be.

For example, I have a HELOC with one 30-day late that occurred more than 4 years ago. On my EQ report for past year this late payment was never shown on reports until 2 months ago. On my TU report this late payment was always on my report, but last month it has disappeared. Go figure how the two services would show different information for the same account!?