How To Search For Federal Tax Liens

Buying Federal Tax Liens is one of the most popular investment trends of the decade. But, where do you search for federal tax leins available for purchase? Whether it's a local, state or federal lien on personal property of real estate, the law requires all tax liens to be of public record.

That means that you could find a listing of every single tax lien in the country if you were able to visit each individual county, state and federal tax administration office. But, since no one has the time, or energy for such an exhaustive search, today's tax lien investor must rely on internet searches, as well as paid search companies to find the liens that they may find profitable.

To find a free listing of federal tax liens filed in a particular location, refer to the IRS chart at Paragraph 38160-205 of the CCH Standard Federal Tax Reporter. Some other places to search for both free and paid tax lien lists from the comfort of your office, by checking out the following websites:

  • www.lexis.com
  • www.autotrack.com
  • www.knowx.com
  • www.accuprint.com
  • www.westlaw.com -- this website only provides corporate tax lien lists in some sections of the United States

Once you've found a good list to search for profitable tax liens you may be interested in purchasing, here are a few tips to help make your search easier:

  • Remember, you can list a name in any order -- either firs name first, or first name last -- in most databases
  • You do not need both a first and last name to find a specific property in the database. Just keep in mind that you may get a larger list of names to sift through when only listing a partial one.
  • Similar names will also be searched automatically. No need to do a second search to look for a nickname or spelling variation.
  • Never enter partial characters. Always write a complete name.
  • When searching for hyphenated names, keep in mind that the search will only find matches with all three terms. Example: Robert C, Brown, will not find Robert Charles Brown.
  • Periods and/or commas do not have to be entered with most programs
  • File numbers exactly as written in the case files (with no spaces between the characters). Never enter a partial number
  • Enter information in any of the fields in any combination.
  • Choose the state you are interested in searching. If you aren't sure what jurisdiction you want to search, than choose "all states."
  • Your results will be sorted alphabetically when choosing the all-states search method.
  • Usually only 25 matches are shown per page

Learning how to efficiently search the government tax lien databases, as well as a variety of good purchased programs takes patience and practice. But practicing these few simple tips will help give you a head start into learning how to search for federal tax liens available for purchase in your community.

Federal Tax Lien Release