If you have major IRS issues, the likelihood of asset seizure is huge. When the IRS demands payment, they can take your assets. This means that if you owe the bureau a lot of unpaid taxes, you might not have a lot left after they're done taking your properties.
Deciding which properties to seize are done by the IRS with regards to these 3 factors:
- The asset required to pay the tax vs. the tax owed
- The convenience of taking and disposing the assets
- The assets' importance to the taxpayer in question
Hoping that you'll choose to sell your assets to pay your unpaid taxes, the IRS will threaten you with asset seizure. These are the assets the IRS usually wants:
- Bank accounts
- Vehicles, like cars, boats, jets and recreational vehicles
- Life insurance with cash value
- Accounts receivable
- Investments in stocks and bonds
- Wages
- Cash for collection
- Real estate, including investment and holiday houses
- Pensions, IRAs and Keoghs
- Your home
Though you might think that they're seizing everything, these assets can't be seized by the IRS:
- Clothing, except fur coats and luxury wear
- Fuel, furniture, personal effects, and provisions up to $6250
- Books and tools of trade amounting to $3125
- Students' books
- Unemployment pension
- Worker's Compensation
- Money from charity
- Benefits received from job training
- Mail that was undelivered
- Child support mandated by the court
- Deposits made to the Special Treasury fund by members of the armed forces and Public Health Service employees called to permanent work outside the U.S.
- Disability payments
- Minimum exemption amount of wages, salary, and other income
- SSI or welfare public assistance payments
It's best to avoid asset seizure, but what if you have already gotten a notice from the IRS? The release process is made easy with guidance from our firm. Your taxes will have to be paid in full, or you can offer an installment deal with the IRS, prove a hardship, or prove that the amount of the asset taken exceeded that of what you needed to pay. |
