Article on Tenancy-by-The-Entireties Interests and the Federal Tax Lien

Steve R. Johnson (Professor of Law, Florida State University College of Law) recently published his article entitled Fog, Fairness, and the Federal Fisc: Tenancy-by-The-Entireties Interests and the Federal Tax Lien, 60 Missouri Law Rev. 1995 (2011). The abstract available on SSRN is below:

Important values often clash when the Internal Revenue Service proceeds against jointly owned property to satisfy tax debts. On the one hand, the federal government has a legitimate revenue interest: In a time of acute budgetary stress, effective collection of taxes is imperative. Moreover, fairness to other taxpayers bears on the matter. Were some of the delinquent owner’s tax liabilities to go uncollected for failure to act against her interest in joint property, that shortfall would-one way or another-have to be made up by the rest of the country’s taxpayers. On the other hand, the co-owners who do not owe taxes should not have their interests in joint property unduly compromised by tax collection against the delinquent owner. In addition, since the form of joint ownership will have been established under state law, concerns of federalism come into play.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.