Court Opinion

ID: 9651028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:03:15.156044+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:29.208947
License: Public Domain

BOWIE, Bankruptcy Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion, and disagree only with the statements of the issue and the conclusion. Normally, that disagreement would not warrant a separate opinion, but the *551facts of this case reach beyond the issue stated by the majority.
The majority states the issue as follows: Whether a federal tax lien, which was not listed as secured in an otherwise timely filed proof of claim, and not provided for in a Chapter 13 plan, remains valid despite confirmation of the plan.
Chapter 13 plans do not “provide for” federal tax liens. Rather, such plans propose to pay debts with differing priorities, depending on whether the obligation is secured, enjoys some statutory priority, or is a general unsecured obligation. With respect to taxes, such as those at issue in this case, plans provide for payment of the tax claims according to the priority they hold. The existence of a valid lien, known to the debtor or not, goes to the priority of payment, but Chapter 13 plans do not “provide for” payment of liens.
The majority’s statement of the issue suggests that the debtor’s plan did not “provide for” the taxes which were secured by the unknown second NFTL. But that is not accurate. The debtor’s plan provided for payment in full of those taxes on a priority basis. The plan simply did not recognize that those taxes were secured by the second NFTL. Consequently, one of the issues posed by the debtor’s appeal is whether a federal tax lien is enforceable when the taxes it secures are provided for in full in a Chapter 13 plan confirmed without objection.
Statement of the issue as set out above is important for the reason that the facts of this case go beyond the facts of the cases correctly relied upon by the majority, for in those cases the taxes were not “provided for” in the plans. Here, the taxes were “provided for”, but just not recognized as secured.
Having asserted that distinction, I reiterate that I concur in the result reached by the majority, and I rely on the same authorities. I would hold that confirmation of a Chapter 13 plan that provides for full payment of certain taxes as priority taxes does not, by the act of confirmation, effect an avoidance of an otherwise valid tax lien. That is the result the majority reaches on the facts in this case, although it nowhere states that conclusion.