If someone owes back taxes more than 4yrs, is it true that the IRS can't collect ?

Answer 1

The IRS has 10 years from the date the tax liability was assessed to collect

It is important to contact IRS and make arrangements to pay the tax due voluntarily. If you do not take some action to pay your tax bill or contact us to make arrangements to settle the account, we may take enforced collection actions to secure payment.

Some of the actions we may take to collect taxes include:

Filing a Notice of Federal Tax Lien,
Serving a Notice of Levy; or
Offset of a refund.

An explanation of this process is as follows:

The federal tax lien is a claim against your property, including property that you acquire after the lien is filed. By filing a Notice of Federal Tax Lien, the government establishes its interest in your property as a creditor in competition with other creditors in certain situations, such as bankruptcy proceedings or sales of real estate. Once a lien is filed, it may appear on your credit report and it may harm your credit rating. Therefore, it is important that you work to resolve your tax liability as quickly as possible, before lien filing becomes necessary. Once a lien is filed, the IRS generally cannot issue a "Certificate of Release of Federal Tax Lien" until the taxes, penalties, interest, and recording fees are paid in full or the IRS may no longer legally collect the tax.

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc201.html

Answer 2

Assuming they are not claiming fraud, the IRS has 3 years after your return was FILED or DUE, whichever comes LAST to asses taxes. Once they asses taxes, they can COLLECT until they are paid. The 10 year limit mentioned by others is how long a tax lien is valid if not renewed. I could find no limit on how long a lien could be renewed.

Answer 3

No. You can only collect a REFUND for up to three years after the original due date of the return.

But if you didn't file a return, they can go back any number of years, since the statute of limitations doesn't start running until a return is filed for that year, although they usually wouldn't go back beyond 7 years.

Answer 4

Nope. This IRS has almost unlimited power to collect from you. If you are that far in arrears, please go to a good CPA & let them help you straighten it out. Do NOT go to one of those horrible "tax settlement" companies advertised on television. They are ALL scum.

Answer 5

No its 10 years, and if you don't set up a payment plan with them they can garnish you wages and levy your bank account