If I Owe Money to the IRS How Do They Look at Credit Cards? So this is a topic of conversation we have a lot of clients and let me give you the position from the IRS side of things the IRS takes the position that they are not a bank so if you owe tax debt they consider themselves to be the supreme creditor so anything that is an unsecured debt including a credit card debt the IRS considers itself to be more of a priority than that debt so the practical effect of that is that when negotiating an IRS payment plan they will not allow you to write off your credit card expenses and this is a big shock for taxpayers because what happens isn't going through a financial analysis income minus necessary expenses a lot of people will list their credit card debt and unless that credit card debt was incurred for let's say business expenses or for something else that. The IRS considers necessary they won't write in minimum credit card payments and will require you to pay a monthly installment agreement pay a payment that's much higher because they're not including the credit card down that so just keep in mind that credit card debt is not a saving grace if you have a substantial amount of credit card debt and it's affecting your cash flow you're going to want to speak with an attorney or qualified representative to help.