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A. Was the Lien Properly Filed?
The federal tax lien is imposed automatically once the
assessment is made. Sec. 6321. No one disputes that the
Commissioner properly assessed Scharringhausen’s 2001-03 taxes
before the NFTL’s filing in May 2005, that he mailed notice-and-
demand letters to Scharringhausen within 60 days of each
assessment’s date, and that the taxes remain unpaid. Thus the
settlement officer correctly found that the NFTL was not filed
prematurely, or in violation of IRS procedures. Scharringhausen
(as best we can tell) argues that the NFTL was nevertheless
procedurally improper because section 6323(j)(1) gives discretion
to the Commissioner to withdraw a lien if, for example, it would
facilitate tax collection. Sec. 6323(j)(1)(C). This is a true
statement, but we’re hard pressed to see how withdrawing the NFTL
could possibly help collect the tax, given that Scharringhausen
had over $1 million in other outstanding judgments against him.
Nor did Scharringhausen satisfy the other provision of
section 6323 that he cited in the record--section 6323(j)(1)(D)--
which allows the NFTL to be withdrawn if doing so would be in the
best interests of the taxpayer and the United States. Though we
don’t doubt that the withdrawal of the lien would benefit
Scharringhausen, we’re equally hard pressed to see how it would
benefit the United States, since the 21 judgment liens already in
place against Scharringhausen make it much more likely that
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Last modified: March 27, 2008