Legal Question in Tax Law in Pennsylvania

In a random check of my credit report in 2010, I found that the state of PA had filed a lien for unpaid Taxes from 17 years ago! I have never been notified of anything that was owed, despite having all of my addresses noted on my report. I do not owe any back taxes, but I do not have my cancelled check because I do not keep records for that long. The bank I used is long gone. Because I was never notified, I was never able to appeal the situation, either.

Can they file a lien after 17 years ?

When I called their office I was rudely told to "pay it and dispute it later." I did file a dispute on credit report and it just came back that they (PA) said it was valid.

I phoned another branch of PA D of R and the woman did tell me that the last letter they sent came back to them as undeliverable in 1-2010. They sent it to an address I lived at 11 years ago.

How do I handle this and get it off of my credit report?


Asked on 2/01/12, 7:16 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Rachel Hunter

I'm not a tax lawyer, but there does not seem to be a statute of limitations for this kind of thing. See https://revenue-pa.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2675/related/1

which says:

Q: Does the PA Department of Revenue have a statute of limitations to collect back taxes?

A: There is no statute of limitations for the department to collect on back taxes that are due.

It does not surprise me that you were never notified. I had a client in much the same circumstance and it was only a happy coincidence that the client pulled a credit report and discovered the lien. The client had to pay the lien, although I was able to get the penalties waived because the PA DoR dropped the ball on notifying the client. So, depending on your circumstances, it may be best to resolve the debt, but get them to at least waive the penalties.

You are not going to get this removed from your credit report. Once the lien is paid, it can stay on your report for 7 years:

15 U.S.C. � 1681c - Requirements relating to information contained in consumer reports

a) Information excluded from consumer reports

Except as authorized under subsection (b) of this section, no

consumer reporting agency may make any consumer report containing

any of the following items of information:

(3) Paid tax liens which, from date of payment, antedate the

report by more than seven years.

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Answered on 2/01/12, 4:00 pm


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