Hello. I recently got offered a job with DOE. I filled Bankruptcy Chapter 7 and discharged in 2020. But I do owe taxes for 2017 to the IRS and made payment plans. Will this disqualify me from obtaining a clearance?
If you are making payments as agreed it should not disqualify you but they will look at all of your information and see if you have a history or pattern of irresponsibility. They will also look at and consider the circumstances leading up to the financial issues. The whole situation will be assessed. So is it an automatic disqualification, no. Can financials lead to an unfavorable adjudication, yes.
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HR2C is correct. Its easy to get sideways with IRS. Any and all steps to take care of it are positive steps. It happens. Document and show you are making it right.
When I divorced, my spouse (and I since we filed jointly) owed over $30K in unpaid taxes. I was naive and did not know that he (we) had this large of a deficit. While my clearance was not revoked, I had to document, document, and document. I took over payments, wrote a check each and every month, and once a year I would go to the bank and have them print out copies of every check. I had to fill out multiple forms, complete with copies of cancelled checks and pinky sweat it would never happen again. I got a statement from the IRS each year which showed the 12 prior months of payments. While it was stress inducing, I managed to keep my job, and made the very last payment a few months ago. Since this debt never shows up on one’s credit report, some ill advised folks do not list it on their SF86 (even though the form specifically asks about tax debts). I advise be upfront about it, provide how it happened, why it happened, and what steps you have taken/are taking to eliminate the debt.
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