What Is an IRS Property Seizure and Why Do IRS Property Seizures Happen

An IRS property seizure occurs when people or businesses owe the Internal Revenue Service money and have no way to pay it back or have not made an attempt to pay it back. It's typically the last step the IRS makes in an attempt to retrieve the money, and they can seize personal property, homes, cars, boats, stocks, bonds, funds and businesses to recover the money they are owed.

The process tends to become complicated, but here is a simplified version of how an IRS property seizure works:

The IRS analyzes the total amount of money that is owed, including taxes, penalties and interest. The IRS investigates all property owned by the individual and determines their liquidity. They also determine the value placed on the property by the individuals and seize the property with more value. The IRS begins filing the paperwork for a property seizure and notifies the individual of it 30 days before the seizure. If no appeal is brought up, or if the appeal is denied, the IRS seizes the property.

Here are ways your qualified tax attorney will convince the IRS not to conduct an IRS property seizure:

The IRS can only take something that is owned by the person who owes them money. If a person owns 10 percent of his car and the rest of the car is owned by a bank, the IRS can only seize 10 percent of the car, which makes the seizure useless.

Any seizures require an investigation. These investigations can be tiresome and often produce no property of value to the IRS.

Senior encumbrance requires prior financial obligations to be repaid before the IRS. The IRS will sometimes be last in line to be repaid on items they repossess.

Items that are seized get auctioned off for the highest bidder. Typically, even with the auction, the items will sell for less than 20 percent of their market value. Because of senior encumbrance, the IRS may not get enough money back for the seizure to be worth it.

The IRS cannot seize any property that has no equity in it.

There are several new laws restricting seizures on personal homes. There are also additional steps for any seizures being performed on businesses that make it much more difficult to seize a business.

If you are being investigated for or have received notice of an , contact a tax attorney before you do anything else, especially talk to the IRS. They will know the best route for your specific case.