United States v. Francis Taylor, Mary E. Taylor

The Hen priority issue in this case involves the interplay of two federal statutory regimes, ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code. The Code provides that a judgment lien, when perfected, has priority over an existing federal tax lien unless notice of the tax lien has been filed in accordance with state law. See 26 U.S.C. § 6323(a), (f). ERISA provides that a former spouse may acquire an enforceable fight to a participant’s pension plan benefits pursuant to the provisions of a “qualified domestic relations order” (QDRO).5 Here, the IRS more or less concedes that the Texas divorce court’s…