Delinquent tax debt can now potentially ground U.S. taxpayers from international travel
Starting this year, The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and U.S. State Department have teamed up in a manner that may affect the future travel plans of certain taxpayers that owe a large amount of money to the Treasury. In late 2015, President Obama signed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) to address long-term funding for surface transportation infrastructure planning and investment. Embedded deep in the law is Section 32101, which requires the IRS under § 7345 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), to notify the State Department of taxpayers certified to have “seriously delinquent tax debt”. Upon certification from the IRS, the State Department is then required to deny a passport application for such individuals and also potentially revoke or limit passports already issued to said taxpayers.
The IRS issued Notice 2018-01 on January 16, 2018 to explain the criteria for which taxpayers qualify and how they plan to enforce the new law. Under § 7345(b)(1), a “seriously delinquent tax debt” is an unpaid legally enforceable, and assessed federal tax liability of an individual, greater than $51,000, subject to inflation and for which:
- A notice of lien has been filed under IRC § 6323 and the Collection Due Process (CDP) hearing rights under IRC § 6320 have been exhausted or lapsed; or
- A levy has been made under IRC § 6331.
The IRS calculates this $51,000 federal tax liability threshold based on an aggregate of the total amount of all current tax liabilities for all taxable years. Even if a taxpayer does not owe over $51,000 for one year, they could still end up targeted under IRC § 7345 if the total federal tax they owe across all years exceeds $51,000. This figure also includes any penalties and interest, which can accumulate rather quickly.
Taxpayers that qualify as having “seriously delinquent tax debt” but have entered into alternative arrangements with the IRS to pay should not be too concerned. IRC § 7345(b)(2) provides exceptions to taxpayers that have agreed to:
(1) An IRS-approved installment agreement,
(2) An offer in compromise accepted by the IRS,
(3) A settlement agreement with the Department of Justice, or has
(4) A pending due process hearing or,
(5) Requested innocent spouse relief
Taxpayers in Currently Not Collectible (CNC) status, in a bankruptcy proceeding or are currently in the process of obtaining one of the five exceptions also are excluded.
Before denying a passport, the State Department will first wait 90 days after receiving certification from the IRS about a taxpayer’s seriously delinquent tax debt. This time allows the taxpayer to try to resolve any erroneous certification issues, pay the full tax debt, or enter into one of the above alternative payment arrangements with the IRS. Meeting any of those requirements will require the IRS to reverse the certification within 30 days and provide notification to the State Department as soon as reasonably possible.
Most surprising to note, however, is that the IRS is not required to notify the taxpayer that they plan to certify their tax debt to the State Department. A taxpayer will likely only find out about the certification after it has already happened. The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), an independent office within the Internal Revenue Service that represents the interests of taxpayers, has wholly criticized this process, citing the potential of infringing on Constitutional due process protections because the taxpayer does not have the option to contest the certification before taking place. They also question whether 90 days is enough time for taxpayers to resolve their tax liabilities, likely because taxpayers with seriously delinquent tax debt over $51,000 have more complicated issues that cannot always be resolved quickly.
Domestic travelers may also want to pay attention to whether their home state is in compliance with the REAL ID Act. This federal law passed during the Bush Administration established new federal standards for state driver’s licenses and ID cards that can be accepted by the federal government for “official purposes”, including boarding commercially operated airline flights. As of the last few years, the Department of Homeland Security has ramped up implementation of the new requirements and currently full enforcement will begin tentatively on October 1, 2020. Theoretically, if a taxpayer’s driver’s license or ID card did not meet the new federal standards, they may be required to show alternative identification that meets the new requirements. The only form of identification that currently meets the REAL ID standards for many taxpayers is a U.S. Passport. Currently, all 50 states are either in compliance or have been granted extensions but many states have passed resolutions against implementing identification cards in compliance with REAL ID.
Valerie Sasaki specializes in jurisdictional tax consulting, working closely with Fortune 50 companies involved in audits before the Oregon or Washington Departments of Revenue. She also works with business owners on tax, business, and estate planning issues in Oregon or Southwest Washington.
