Did you know that if you owe the IRS more than $52,000 they can, with cooperation from the State Department, have your passport revoked?

IRC Section 7345 authorizes the IRS to certify that you owe over $52,000 and the State Department will not issue a passport to you, and can revoke your present passport.  There is a provision that if you are overseas and your passport is revoked, the State Department may issue you a limited validity passport good only for direct return to the US.  In my opinion, $52,000 is not a lot of money as far as the IRS is concerned. Certainly it’s not enough to be considered reasonable for the amount of damage a revoked passport may cause.  

In order for the revocation to be applied, a notice of federal tax lien must have been filed or a  levy issued. Normally, either one of those actions are preceded by a plethora of letters from the IRS so feigning ignorance isn’t going to work, sorry.  

What will work to avoid the revocation are the following:

• Your debt is being paid under an installment agreement
• You have an offer-in-compromise that’s been accepted by the IRS that’s being paid on time
• You have a timely collection due process hearing scheduled regarding the levy
• You are requesting innocent spouse relief under IRC section 6015.