How to Remove Tax Liens & Judgments From a Credit Report

Obviously tax liens and judgments need to be avoided at all costs because they will ruin your credit score. But if it's too late for that, there are credit repair services you can hire that can help you. There are also things you can do yourself to help repair your credit record.

Instructions

1

Dispute the judgment with the three credit bureaus. The credit bureaus will check with the judgment creditor, and the judgment creditor has only 30 days to respond to the validity of the judgment. If they don't do it in time, the credit bureaus will remove the judgment from your credit report.

2

Negotiate with the judgment creditor if it verifies the validity of the judgment. You can do this by offering the company a monetary settlement. This will show up on your credit report as a dismissed judgment. This looks much better on your credit report than a judgment and even better than just paying it. When you come to an agreement about dismissing the judgment with the judgment creditor, have them put it in writing. They will then file the dismissal with the court and the court will report to the credit bureaus. You should have the judgment off your credit report within 30 to 45 days.

3

File a motion to vacate, or hire an attorney to do so on your behalf for a few hundred dollars. This is an option if you believe you were served with a judgment in error. Successfully filing this motion will get it off your credit report and you won't have to pay the judgment creditor.

4

Remove a tax lien by calling the IRS and asking to submit an Offer in Compromise. If you don't have enough money to pay off the tax lien, you can make an offer to the IRS to pay a fraction of what you owe -- if they accept your offer. Or, depending on how old your tax lien is, you may just want to wait out the statute of limitations. Call the IRS to find out when your tax lien expires to see when it will fall off your credit report.