Waiting for the IRS lien to attach before you act…are you nuts?

You must always remember, it is your absolute responsibility and duty to yourself, and to your business to represent yourself and your business in the light most beneficial to your own needs.

Whether you are right or wrong, presumably in default of a required payment with no defense, you are still entitled and expected to represent yourself in your own best interests.

This includes arranging your affairs and adjusting your position to your own advantage as much as can be allowed given normal standards and the laws of the land. You cannot engage in fraudulent transfers to avoid creditors rights, but you can still present yourself in the best light possible and support this with appropriately planned and executed adjustments.

This we should all know, hopefully, and be acting accordingly. However one area that is not handled well and is very confusing to many is when the IRS sends a taxpayer notice that they intend to lien you, it is a huge red flag that your property rights are about to change dramatically and for the worse if you do not do something about it before the lien attaches.

Perhaps before the lien lands, the tax payer should review his position and make certain reasonable and allowable transitions, transfers, sales, and adjustments in your best interests occur without the IRS being able to prevent it and never having a real opportunity to even review it prior to it happening…..this makes sense, as long as the transfers are for reasonable consideration and support a reasonable business reason or practice.

Yet, many in such situations, knowing the lien is coming, frequently opt to wait and do nothing to better their position. Wait till the IRS liens attach and then when the noose is tightly wound around your neck, you then ask for help, long after many safekeeping maneuvers could have been accomplished but now are quite impossible to accomplish or a whole lot harder.

If you decided to sell an asset prior to the lien from the IRS and use the proceeds for whatever gainful business purpose the taxpayer may have, you possibly could. Once the lien attaches you cannot.

In fact if you sell an asset under lien the capital must go directly to the IRS ( or whomever has the highest priority lien position) and only with their permission as they must release the lien for the transaction to occur.

Thus we have severely reduced our ability to arrange our assets in a way most beneficial to ourselves and raise and disburse capital for good business reasons and use the capital as we deem important once the lien is attached.

The IRS will control all your liened assets and any sale or liquidation will be solely for the benefit of the IRS or others with priority positions…Not a good situation.

The point is we must never forget that in a workout situation, any workout, with the IRS, SBA, Banks etc., you probably will have some idea approximately when the lien will come, as eventually you will be liened, yet we frequently wait…till its too late. Even if you have absolutely know idea when a lien may attach, you certainly know if you are in trouble and confromntinmg these issues and thus had best arrange your business and financial affairs accordingly, in the best light for you to survive these issues most effectively with the least damage. That’s good business planning sense.

The lesson is, you must react before the lien attaches to best protect yourself. Waiting is costly and foolhardy and allows the opposition to set their position for a liquidation of your assets for their best interests not yours.

Do not wait. When you get the notice, act first. In fact you probably should have acted long before but at the very least now is your last chance, before the lien sets its noose around your neck. call for help 413-549-2966