An IRS audit will cover all sorts of interesting things; but the actual, as opposed to the declared, amount of a filer’s income is the one with which the IRS is most concerned. When an audit shows that someone earned far more income than he or she has declared, there will be both back taxes and interest fees to pay.
If you find yourself on the paying end of these taxes, and you don’t have the money to cover them, the government may come after your other assets, including your home. Your home could be put into government foreclosure.
Whenever someone owes more money to the Federal government than they can pay, the government attaches all their assets, monetary and physical. Cars, boats, homes, jewelry, or artwork--any luxury items which will generate good prices--are seized and sold.
Those who only owe the government a few hundreds or thousands of dollars, however, are not going to have their homes seized as government foreclosures. They are more likely to have a payment plan offered to them. But for those whose government debt measures in the hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars, government foreclosures are almost guaranteed.
Government foreclosures are not to be taken lightly, and will be a part of your permanent financial history. They can even cost you everything you have, from bank accounts, investment portfolios, and vehicles to residences. Government foreclosures leave no stone unturned in finding the assets to payoff your government debt.
Government Foreclosures: The Auctions
In order to get it money, the government will sometimes hold auctions at which it sells the items seized in government foreclosures. Luxury cars, yachts, planes, entertainment equipment, jewelry, and even homes will go to the parties who place the highest bids, and often at prices greatly discounted to their real value.
The information on government foreclosures auctions I posted in local newspapers; it is also available from the nearest government agency. A phone call will provide you with everything you need to know about the location and time of the next auction; the government is more than willing to help people participate in the auctions so that the debts will be at least partially paid.
Government foreclosures are a last-ditch effort for the government to recover what it is owed, and usually lead to someone’s life being devastated. But they are a last resort; the government will try hard to find other way for debtors to pay back what they owe before turning to foreclosure.
The lesson? File an honest tax return, pay what you owe when it is due, and never give government foreclosures a second thought.
