Form 12277 (Application for Withdrawal of Filed Notice of Federal Tax Lien)
The form that asks the IRS to withdraw a filed lien notice. It lists five grounds, and being on a direct debit installment agreement is one of them.
Full Definition
Form 12277 is the application to withdraw a filed Form 668(Y), Notice of Federal Tax Lien, under Internal Revenue Code section 6323(j).
Withdrawal is not release. A release says the liability is satisfied or unenforceable; a withdrawal removes the public notice while the underlying lien may still exist. That distinction is why the form asks, separately, for the current status of the lien — open, released, or unknown.
The form prints the grounds as checkboxes, which is the most useful thing about it, because it tells you what the IRS considers a reason:
The Notice of Federal Tax Lien was filed prematurely or not in accordance with IRS procedures. The taxpayer entered into an installment agreement to satisfy the liability and the agreement did not provide for a Notice of Federal Tax Lien to be filed. The taxpayer is under a Direct Debit Installment Agreement. Withdrawal will facilitate collection of the tax. The taxpayer, or the Taxpayer Advocate acting on behalf of the taxpayer, believes withdrawal is in the best interest of the taxpayer and the government.
The third of those is the one most people do not know exists.
The form asks you to attach a copy of the Form 668(Y) if you have one, or otherwise to give its serial number, the date it was filed and the recording office where it was filed.
What to do next
Find the serial number of the Form 668(Y) — it is near the top of the lien document — and the recording office it was filed with, because the form asks for both where you cannot attach a copy. If the IRS denies the application, the instructions to Form 9423 list denials of lien certificate requests as appealable under the Collection Appeals Program.
What this page does not say
- Form 12277 is Revision 10-2011. That is the current published revision as of retrieval, but a fifteen-year-old procedural form is exactly the kind that changes without announcement. Confirm against irs.gov before relying on the grounds list.
Sources
- Form 12277, Application for Withdrawal of Filed Form 668(Y), Notice of Federal Tax Lien — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-21
- Understanding a federal tax lien — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-20
Last reviewed 2026-08-21 by Tax Resolution Clarity editorial.
Sourced to primary IRS materials and editorially reviewed. Not reviewed by a tax professional. Not tax advice.
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Where to go next
The IRS publishes the rules this page describes. Your own notice governs your dates.