Starting in January 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will forward information about certain taxpayers to the Department of State to revoke passports. This was the first action taken to enforce the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act provision, which called for those taxpayers with “seriously delinquent tax debt” to have their passports revoked if they were not taking the necessary steps to deal with the debt. This is being done to encourage taxpayers to deal with their tax debt in as an efficient manner as possible.
Those taxpayers that are deemed “seriously delinquent” are those that owe more than $51,000.00 in back taxes, penalties and interest for which the IRS has filed a Notice of Federal Tax Lien and the period to challenge it has expired or the IRS has issued a levy.
It is important to be proactive with your tax debt in every situation but extremely important if you are over the $51,000.00 threshold. You can protect your passport by getting into a protective agreement with the IRS.
If you have already gotten notice that the IRS has forwarded your account to the State Department, you need to take action in order to get your passport back. Please call our office for a free initial consultation to determine what your best options are. For additional information, check out the IRS website regarding Passport Revocation.
Arthur Rosatti, Esq. is an attorney at Ashley F. Morgan Law, PC. He has years of experience helping individuals manage their state and federal tax debt.