The IRS to try to help people save their homes

Efforts to help financially distressed homeowners who have federal tax liabilities were announced by the Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday during a telephone press conference.

In what he described as "an expedited process that will make it easier for financially distressed homeowners to avoid having a federal tax lien block refinancing of mortgages or the sale of a home," IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman stressed that the goal is to "balance our responsibility to enforce the law with the economic realities facing many American citizens today."

As for the IRS' part: "It currently takes about 30 days to apply for and receive either a discharge or a subordination of a federal tax lien," he said. "The IRS is committed to putting in place whatever resources are needed to speed this process up as much as possible."

When pressed on the meaning of the word "discharge," journalists were told by Director of Collection Policy Fred Schindler that meant the IRS "removes the barrier of the lien but does not remove or excuse the debt." The taxes are still owed and could attach to wages or an automobile, for example.

Asked if speeding up the normally 30-day process meant 24 hours or 7 days, Schindler could offer no specific time frame.

This would seem to be a critical point considering the major aspect of the announcement was that the IRS is expediting the process. If you have one of the more than 1 million federal tax liens out there that is tied to both real and personal property and explore this process, get back to us on how fast that is.

The efforts are geared toward previously compliant taxpayers. More information is at irs.gov.

--Lauren Beale

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Photo: IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. Credit: Dennis Cook / Associated Press