To help support fairness and integrity in the tax system, the Internal Revenue Service has made a change in how it handles passport certifications for people with significant tax debt. The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, signed into law in December 2015, requires the IRS to notify the State Department of taxpayers the IRS has certified as owing a seriously delinquent tax debt. For further information, see Notice 2018-1 regarding implementation of IRC 7345. The FAST Act also requires the State Department to deny their passport application or deny renewal of their passport. In some cases, the State Department may revoke their passport.
A taxpayer with a seriously delinquent tax debt is generally someone who owes the IRS more than $52,000 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. So far, the program has resulted in $1.2 billion in tax payments from taxpayers who the IRS certified to the State Department as being seriously delinquent in their tax debt.
Recent Comments