The Department of the Treasury has released interim guidance on the discharge of federal estate tax liens under IRC section 6324(a).

Unlike other federal tax liens, the federal estate tax lien arises immediately at death, without any assessment, notice or demand, and it attaches to all property included in the gross estate for federal estate tax purposes.

The interim guidance was issued because the processing of requests for discharge of the estate tax lien, which are often necessary in order to sell real estate, has been moved from one department to another within the IRS and the new department was applying different criteria for granting discharges.

“Interim Guidance for Responsibility to Process All Requests for Discharge of the Estate Tax Lien,” Control Number: SBSE-05-0417-0011 (4/5/2017).