First, we need to make sure that you understand what a lien is. A lien is simply a legal claim that is made by a person, entity, or company against a property owned by a person or people who owe that person, entity, or company an unpaid debt. If the person who owes the debt is unable or refuses to pay, the debtor can go to court to get a lien attached to certain pieces of property, such as a house, in order to get compensated for that debt. You can usually find any lien in the local public records search, which also makes it easy for other creditors to find them. So if a lien or liens already exist against a house, lenders or creditors can use that to decide whether or not to offer loans to the owner.

A tax lien is a specific type of lien that, as you might imagine, involves unpaid taxes. When you live in Utah, you have to consider state taxes and federal taxes. Not paying either or both could land you with a tax lien on your property.

If you don’t pay state taxes, the Utah State Tax Commission (USTC) can put a tax lien on your property. Until you pay off the tax debt owed or come to an agreement with them about payments, that lien will stay on the property. If this happens, you’ll want to consult a tax attorney who understands how to deal with these kinds of situations so that you don’t get into deeper trouble as the tax commission is not an entity you want to tangle with too much.

In the same vein, if you don’t pay federal taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), they can put a tax lien on your property as well. Of all the liens you could have on your property this is probably the way you’d want to avoid the most as the IRS is historically difficult to deal with and a solution may require hiring lawyers or accountants to help get you out of the mess, especially if you want to remove the tax lien before you sell your Utah house.