Due to me going in a debt consolidation program, that has missed up my federal taxes for the year 2020, 2021, and 2022 as the debt was written off as income but they never submitted the information to me by time I filed. The IRS said I owed, and I have been making active payments. The state taxes are due to my second job as part time teacher not taking out state income tax as I teach part in a state with no income tax. This year I got a handle on the tax situation, but I am still in a payment plan for the other the previous year. I have a clearance currently, but I am up for renewal. The section 18, where it asked have you ever not filed or not paid your income tax in the last sevens. Do I check Yes and write in the necessary situations with documentation, or do I check No as I am in a payment plan?
Did you fail to file in 2020, 21 or 22? Did you owe the IRS AND not pay before filing deadline OR not set up your payment plan before filing deadline AND not get an extension? If you answer yes to any of those, then your answer should probably be Yes. If you filed on time AND made your payments or payment plan before filing deadline, then you can probably answer No.
I filed on time for all years. I also setup the payment plan for all of them in advance for federal. But for state I setup a payment plan, they took money and then stopped due to a correction that the IRS sent them for 2021 and 2022. They said that I should have received something in the mail saying that payments had stopped due a correction and they were going to combine everything into one. Well that combination did not happen for 6 months. I even called throughout the 6 months and they said the notice will be sent soon. State of MD updated their process in December 2023 and again in February 2024 for the final update. In March I got the notice and setup the same day. So I been paying and I set up the payments when I was supposed no liens or wages garnished at all.
I don’t see how that qualifies as “not paying or setting up a payment plan.” If it was me, and I had that email from the state, I would answer No. But not telling you what to do. If you’re concerned, you should ask your CSO or HR dept.
So annually we have to fill out the sf-86 form corrections and part of that asked about financial obligations, mainly bankruptcy. So I brought that up and what my CSO said you made the necessary payment arrangements once notified and called. You are good. Just do not miss a payment or do not let them put a lien on you. None of that has and will not happen. But the for the renewal of background investigation the ask is have you filed to pay. Technically, I did not pay on time but I did make payment arrangements and been meeting those arrangements. The wording is just weird, “fail to pay”. If I made payment arrangements then am I failing to pay, or is it the fact that a failed to pay on time (by April 15 of those years) the actual amount I owed in full means I failed to pay.
The way I look at it is I am not failing to pay if there is a an agreement set to pay. But is that the same thing?
I would recommend checking “yes” and provide a reasonably brief summary (much as you have given here). Don’t worry you’ll have a chance to go into everything in detail with the investigator.
Here’s the key point: make sure you can show that you were in the process of clearing up these issues BEFORE you applied for the job/clearance. Sometimes they take a dim view of folks who only start to “do the right thing” after they find out it will be a problem for the security clearance.
So I already have one. This is for the renewal process. I have had a clearance for the last 5 yrs. But I started the payment process right away and more recently I changed my W4 and W2 to try to counter the issue moving forward in hopes to get a return in the upcoming years that would pay for what owe faster.
If you are paying as agreed (i.e. payment plan) then you have not failed to pay as long as the payment plan was initiated within the timeline approved by the IRS. Now if you owed money and did not pay on it at all for 2 years and THEN set up a payment plan, that would be failure to pay.