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> If someone owes a debt, place a lein on the property that prevents it from being sold until the owner makes good... or work out some kind of installment plan.
by PragmaticPulp 3y ago
> If someone owes a debt, place a lein on the property that prevents it from being sold until the owner makes good... or work out some kind of installment plan.
I can’t speak for every jurisdiction, but I do know that offering installment plans is a standard part of tax repayment plans.
These situations don’t occur until the back tax amount is relatively large. It takes many years and ignoring many, many tax collection attempts to reach this level of back taxes.
I understand why you’d want to prohibit this type of asset seizure, but you need to consider the unintended consequences: Many people would stop paying taxes if there was no real consequence for doing so. If you’re a shady landlord who intends to rent a house out forever and never sell it, why would you bother paying taxes if the laws prevented the government from actually collecting them from you?
- chaorace 3y agoWell, this is the state we're talking about... the threat of 30-60 days in jail might be sufficient to scare most small-time tax dodgers into line. Anyone bigger than that's probably already legally avoiding taxes in the first place anyways.
- fnordpiglet 3y agoDebtors prison isn’t something people have fond memories of
- ryandrake 3y agoThe government can use less-cruel ways to collect owed taxes from people who don't or can't pay, including [as mentioned] liens and negotiated payment plans, or even income garnishment and private debt collection. Even that would be more humane than stealing someone's home and kicking them out to live on the street. They could also make exceptions for owner-occupied vs. investment property. It's one thing to seize (or threaten to seize) someone's profitable business assets to force them to pay their taxes, it's another thing altogether to force an old lady out of her only home onto the street. Finally, they could even simply accept the reality that a certain percentage of very poor homeowners just cannot afford their taxes, accept this humanely, and budget accordingly. I'd be willing to pay 0.5% more or whatever on my property taxes if it meant Tax Foreclosures were abolished.
- aaravchen 3y agoWhat about the case where it's no longer the owner's primary residence, such as this exact case where the woman had moved to elderly care facility?