federal tax lien
1
8.1
- noun
- /ˈfɛdərəl tæks liːn/
- Specialized
:
gravamen fiscal federal
- Homeowners should be aware that a federal tax lien can impact their ability to refinance their mortgage.
- a federal tax lien filed
Examples
-
If there is a federal tax lien on your property, you cannot sell it until the lien is cleared.
-
To be fair, there may not have been a lot of walnut left, at least once the IRS hit Miranda's estate with a federal tax lien of $6,047,760.00.
Blog text (8) -
Also, in 2005, the IRS filed 522,887 notices of federal tax liens, actually a slight decrease from 2004 and 2003. (The figures are in the IRS Data Book, FY 2005; see **36;3278;TOOLONG.)
Academic text (2006) -
John discovered that a federal tax lien had been placed on his account due to unpaid taxes from previous years.
Synonyms
3
7.6
A claim by the government on property like a house for unpaid taxes that lets the government take it
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'federal' (national government) + 'tax' (government charge) + 'lien' (legal claim on property) yields the idea of a government claim on a taxpayer's property for unpaid taxes. Although it is a legal/technical term, the parts combine transparently and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically, so a learner who knows the constituents can infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun federal tax lien comes from the idea of the federal government placing a legal lien on your property because you owe taxes. A lien is like a legal 'hold', so the phrase means the government has a claim on your property until the tax debt is paid.