How to Remove Federal Tax Liens on a Credit Report After the Statute of Limitations

Negative credit marks, which include public records such as a federal tax lien filing, can only appear on your credit report for ten years. Once this period of time has finished, you may request that the lien is removed from the report. The ten years is counted from the paid date of the lien, as opposed to the date it is actually entered on the credit report. Some states do not have a statute of limitations on tax collection, so you need to check your state's statutes prior to attempting to remove the lien from your credit report.

Instructions

1

Prepare a letter to the Internal Revenue Service requesting a release of a federal tax lien due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. You do not have to fill out a specific form or template for this letter, but the IRS requires you to provide the request date, your name and address, a copy of the federal tax lien notice for the lien you need released and the reason for the lien release.

2

Send this letter to the proper address for your state listed in IRS Publication 4235.

3

Write a letter to each of the three credit reporting agencies: TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. Send a copy of the lien release to each credit reporting agency and inform the agencies that the lien is past its ten year reporting date. The agencies will double check this information and remove the federal tax lien once they have verified that the information is accurate.