Getting a tax lien off our credit report

[Suz D]

I'm looking for some advice/direction...

In early 1996 I was the breadwinner of the family as my husband was finishing his PhD. Our daughter was born 12 weeks prematurely and we decided to apply for overdraft protection on our checking account knowing that we would have no cushion for a mathematical error. The bank called us and said that a tax lien from Colorado was showing on our credit report and that they wanted to let us know because it was very inconsistent with the rest of our credit history.

We checked with the State of Co. and found out that in 1987 when my husband moved to Washington State to get his masters he marked something wrong on his tax return. He somehow misread the question and thought that he was supposed to indicate if he would be living in Wa. full time (which he was). The question was actually asking if he lived in Wa. for the entire year. Because Wa. State doesn't have any state taxes he didn't pay the additional taxes that were due in Co.

The said they attempted to contact him (they couldn't have tried too hard, his SSN would have indicated where he was going to school, he had a credit card and a publicly listed phone number) to collect the $92.07 that he owed on his taxes.

We obviously paid the amount due as soon as we found out about it in 1996 (it was $142-ish with interest & penalties). In 2003 when we bought our first house it was still showing up on our credit report. Our lender just asked us to contact the state of Co department of revenue and get a letter stating that we had paid it in full in 1996 as the rest of our credit report was good.

Fast forward to today (bless you if you're still with me. I can never tell a story without making it into a novel ). The FBI is doing a background check on my husband for top security clearance and the tax lien is STILL showing on our credit report. It was paid in full nearly 15 years ago. How in the heck do we get that off our credit history? Our credit score is good even with the tax lien showing, but honestly, it's ridiculous that it's still on there.

Help me oh wise and benevolent budget board friends.

 

[Bren's Mom]

WHICH credit report was it on? TransUnion, Equifax, Experian? All 3, or some combination of the 3?

And is it showing as paid?

Your best bet is to dispute with the credit reporting agencies...whichever ones have the lien listed in their reports.

 

[cglaura]

What you need to do is contact the credit reporting agencies. Submit a letter stating it was paid, include any supporting letters from CO tax board, etc.

If possible, submit your letter not on plain white paper with black text. Use something with a colorful background, different fonts and colors.

This way, it is not able to be fed to the auto reader, and you have a better chance of an actual person handling the case right from the get-go. Usually the autohandler will just spit out something that verifies your info, but doesn't really handle fine details of particular cases, and you wind up having to resubmit because it thinks it is valid if your ss#,name, etc is correct. You need an actual handler to see it was paid a long time ago.

If it is past the reporting years for your state, ask to have it removed as well. For NJ it is 7 years usually, not sure what WV/CO/WA is. I would think 14 years it should be off there, but I'm not sure of tax reporting time.

 

[Bren's Mom]

I wouldn't send any letters or anything. I would dispute online. It will not cost you anything. It is up to the CRA to verify the lien, if they cannot they MUST delete it and this all must be done within 30-45 days by law.

 

[Suz D]

I'm not sure which one(s) it's showing on. The guy came to interview my DH and talk to our neighbors etc. and told him yesterday that it came up on the credit check.

I talked to Co. in 2003 when we went to buy our house and asked why it wasn't marked as paid when we paid it in 1996. They said it was not their responsibility to show that it was paid, it was mine. At that point it was just under 7 years since it was paid so I figured it would drop of the credit report regardless of whose responsibility it was.

How do I find out which credit agencies show it as a lien? Will it cost me something to find that out?

 

[Bren's Mom]

So when you say, I would contact them to have it removed, who is "them"?

'They' are the credit reporting agencies, there are 3 of them.

I would start by running your credit reports at annualcreditreports.com. There are no 'joint' reports although you and your husband might have joint accounts which show on both. So you need to get a credit report for each of you from each of the 3 bureaus. There is no charge for this, you may do it once per year (one for each bureau per year).

Once you have the reports, you'll see who is reporting it.

If it's on your dh's TransUnion report, you will have to dispute with them.

If it's on your Equifax report, you will dispute with them.

Go to the appropriate website (experian.com, equifax.com, transunion.com) and follow the instructions to file a dispute.

They then have 45 days to respond. They will send you a letter. My guess will be they will all delete as this is well beyond the 7 years.

 

[cglaura]

I'm not sure which one(s) it's showing on. The guy came to interview my DH and talk to our neighbors etc. and told him yesterday that it came up on the credit check.

I talked to Co. in 2003 when we went to buy our house and asked why it wasn't marked as paid when we paid it in 1996. They said it was not their responsibility to show that it was paid, it was mine. At that point it was just under 7 years since it was paid so I figured it would drop of the credit report regardless of whose responsibility it was.

So when you say, I would contact them to have it removed, who is "them"?

"Them" would be Equifax, TransUnion, Experian. If you can't find out what report they used, you can pull a free copy from each at www.annualcreditreport.com

You can dispute online, but when something requries documentation like taxes, it may just get spit back as verified. All they need to verify is that you are who you are and if it matches their info. It won't hurt, but may waste time if you wind up having to follow up with paperwork afterwards.

Send you stuff certified too, so you have a paper trail.

this is a good site for info

www.creditboards.com

 

[Suz D]

It's only showing up on my DH's credit report because it happened long before we even met so I'm guessing if I request just his I'd be fine. I actually requested the free credit report about 6 months ago when I got an e-mail that our address had been changed to a North Carolina address on our CC. They suggested I pull a copy of our credit report to make sure nothing looked strange.

I didn't even pay attention at that time whether the lien was still showing or not. I wonder if I saved that credit report or shredded it? If I didn't save it, I don't know why I didn't.

Thanks for the advice. I will check it right away and contact "them"! As you might have noticed, I edited my post when I realized that "them" was the credit agencies. What a dork I am!