Where, may I ask, did you get this info? Just curious as I've never seen that in over 20 years of preparing tax returns & having clients bring in letters/levies from the IRS. I've never seen the IRS willfully "give" someone 12 years to file a tax return or an amended return.
Usually, one receives a notice from the IRS that you haven't claimed income from 2-3 years ago (it takes them that long to catch up, considering the millions of returns & data they have to match up). If you ignore that notice, they'll send you another telling you that unless you reply (showing why you don't owe the amount they say or by amending your return to include expenses - as they don't include any expenses since they don't know what, if any expenses you had), they will place a Levy on your assets. Then you are sent a letter offering you the chance to go to Tax Court to show why you shouldn't have to pay what they say. The next step is the Tax Lien, which has me :waitasec: about who received the first 3 notices...(we can probably figure that one out :innocent: ). After that, the IRS will sell any assets you may have, or have first claim on any future assets. ***It has been 2 years since I prepared any returns, so I may not be up on any new rules. I stopped reading up on tax laws as soon as I didn't have to do it, LOL***
If anyone wants to wade thru the following (it's not that hard really, lol), it explains the IRS collection process. Pgs. 6 & 11 are interesting, especially the part about "another party being responsible for reporting/paying" (paraphrased from pg.11). Hmmmm
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p594.pdf