Do federal tax liens go away upon sale of the property to another owner?
Federal tax liens work in a way that when an owner of a property fails to pay their taxes, the government can establish a control on the property, thus allowing them to be able to foreclose on the property at any given time, however they see fit. This is due to the fact that a property holds quite a bit of value and upon foreclosure would be able to expel all existing overdue taxes the owner could've had. These foreclosures take an extended period of time to occur and sometimes don't occur at all, but do have consequences for the owners of the property.
With that said, upon the sale of the property to another owner, the tax lien, if it hasn't yet been settled, will still remain on the property. It doesn't matter if the delinquent taxpayer is no longer a resident, the lien remains until it is removed by the government. Realistically, people don't tend to purchase homes with a lien on it, but sometimes it happens. The new owners would then be at risk of living in a house that can be foreclosed at any time by the federal government, even though they pay their taxes on time.
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