UNITED STATES v. CRAFT

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274 OCTOBER TERM, 2001
Syllabus
UNITED STATES v. CRAFT
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for
the sixth circuit
No. 00–1831. Argued January 14, 2002—Decided April 17, 2002
When respondent’s husband failed to pay federal income tax liabilities as-
sessed against him, a federal tax lien attached to “all [of his] property
and rights to property.” 26 U. S. C. § 6321. After the notice of the lien
was filed, respondent and her husband jointly executed a quitclaim deed
purporting to transfer to her his interest in a piece of real property in
Michigan that they owned as tenants by the entirety. Subsequently,
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agreed to release the lien and allow
respondent to sell the property with half the net proceeds to be held in
escrow pending determination of the Government’s interest in the prop-
erty. She brought this action to quiet title to the escrowed proceeds.
The Government claimed, among other things, that its lien had attached
to the husband’s interest in the tenancy by the entirety. The District
Court granted the Government summary judgment, but the Sixth Cir-
cuit held that no lien attached because the husband had no separate
interest in the entireties property under Michigan law, and remanded
the case for consideration of an alternative claim not at issue here. In
affirming the District Court’s decision on remand, the Sixth Circuit held
that its prior opinion on the issue whether the lien attached to the hus-
band’s entireties property was the law of the case.
Held: The husband’s interests in the entireties property constitute “prop-
erty” or “rights to property” to which a federal tax lien may attach.
Pp. 278–289.
(a) Because the federal tax lien statute itself creates no property
rights, United States v. Bess, 357 U. S. 51, 55, this Court looks initially
to state law to determine what rights the taxpayer has in the property
the Government seeks to reach and then to federal law to determine
whether such state-delineated rights qualify as property or rights to
property under § 6321, Drye v. United States, 528 U. S. 49, 58. A com-
mon idiom describes property as a “bundle of sticks”—a collection of
individual rights which, in certain combinations, constitute property.
State law determines which sticks are in a person’s bundle, but federal
law determines whether those sticks constitute property for federal tax
lien purposes. In looking to state law, this Court must consider the
substance of the state law rights, not the labels the State gives them or
the conclusions it draws from them. Pp. 278–279.

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(b) Michigan law gave respondent’s husband, among other rights, the
right to use the entireties property, the right to exclude others from it,
the right of survivorship, the right to become a tenant in common with
equal shares upon divorce, the right to sell the property with respond-
ent’s consent and to receive half the proceeds from such a sale, the right
to encumber the property with respondent’s consent, and the right to
block respondent from selling or encumbering the property unilater-
ally. Pp. 279–282.
(c) The rights Michigan law granted respondent’s husband qualify as
“property” or “rights to property” under § 6321. The broad statutory
language authorizing the tax lien reveals that Congress meant to reach
every property interest that a taxpayer might have. United States v.
National Bank of Commerce, 472 U. S. 713, 719–720. The husband’s
rights of use, exclusion, and income alone may be sufficient to subject
his entireties interest to the lien, for they gave him a substantial degree
of control over the property. See Drye, supra, at 61. He also had the
right to alienate the property with respondent’s consent. The unilat-
eral alienation stick is not essential to “property.” Federal tax liens
may attach to property that cannot be unilaterally alienated, United
States v. Rodgers, 461 U. S. 677, and excluding such property would
exempt a rather large amount of what is commonly thought of as prop-
erty. A number of the sticks in respondent’s husband’s bundle were
presently existing, so it is not necessary to consider whether his survi-
vorship right alone, which respondent claims is an expectancy, would
qualify as property or rights to property. Were this Court to reach a
contrary conclusion, the entireties property would belong to no one for
§ 6321 purposes because respondent had no more interest in the prop-
erty than her husband. Such a result seems absurd and would allow
spouses to shield their property from federal taxation by classifying
it as entireties property, facilitating abuse of the federal tax system.
Legislative history does not support respondent’s position that Congress
did not intend that a federal tax lien attach to an entireties property
interest. And the common-law background of the tax lien statute’s en-
actment is not enough to overcome the broad language Congress actu-
ally used. Pp. 283–288.
(d) That Michigan makes a different choice with respect to state law
creditors does not dictate the choice here. Because § 6321’s interpreta-
tion is a federal question, this Court is in no way bound by state courts’
answers to similar questions involving state law. Pp. 288–289.
233 F. 3d 358, reversed and remanded.
O’Connor, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist,
C. J., and Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined.

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Scalia, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Thomas, J., joined, post,
p. 289. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Stevens and
Scalia, JJ., joined, post, p. 290.
Kent L. Jones argued the cause for the United States.
With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Olson, Assist-
ant Attorney General O’Connor, Deputy Solicitor General
Wallace, David English Carmack, and Joan I. Oppenheimer.
Jeffrey S. Sutton argued the cause for respondent. With
him on the briefs were Chad A. Readler, Jeffrey A. Moyer,
and Michael Dubetz, Jr.
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case raises the question whether a tenant by the en-
tirety possesses “property” or “rights to property” to which
a federal tax lien may attach. 26 U. S. C. § 6321. Relying
on the state law fiction that a tenant by the entirety has no
separate interest in entireties property, the United States
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that such prop-
erty is exempt from the tax lien. We conclude that, despite
the fiction, each tenant possesses individual rights in the es-
tate sufficient to constitute “property” or “rights to prop-
erty” for the purposes of the lien, and reverse the judgment
of the Court of Appeals.
I
In 1988, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assessed
$482,446 in unpaid income tax liabilities against Don Craft,
the husband of respondent Sandra L. Craft, for failure to file
federal income tax returns for the years 1979 through 1986.
App. to Pet. for Cert. 45a, 72a. When he failed to pay,
a federal tax lien attached to “all property and rights to
property, whether real or personal, belonging to” him.
26 U. S. C. § 6321.
At the time the lien attached, respondent and her husband
owned a piece of real property in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
as tenants by the entirety. App. to Pet. for Cert. 45a.
After notice of the lien was filed, they jointly executed a

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quitclaim deed purporting to transfer the husband’s interest
in the property to respondent for one dollar. Ibid. When
respondent attempted to sell the property a few years later,
a title search revealed the lien. The IRS agreed to release
the lien and allow the sale with the stipulation that half of
the net proceeds be held in escrow pending determination of
the Government’s interest in the property. Ibid.
Respondent brought this action to quiet title to the es-
crowed proceeds. The Government claimed that its lien had
attached to the husband’s interest in the tenancy by the en-
tirety. It further asserted that the transfer of the property
to respondent was invalid as a fraud on creditors. Id., at
46a–47a. The District Court granted the Government’s
motion for summary judgment, holding that the federal tax
lien attached at the moment of the transfer to respondent,
which terminated the tenancy by the entirety and entitled
the Government to one-half of the value of the property.
No. 1:93–CV–306, 1994 WL 669680, *3 (WD Mich., Sept. 12,
1994).
Both parties appealed. The Sixth Circuit held that the
tax lien did not attach to the property because under Michi-
gan state law, the husband had no separate interest in prop-
erty held as a tenant by the entirety. 140 F. 3d 638, 643
(1998). It remanded to the District Court to consider the
Government’s alternative claim that the conveyance should
be set aside as fraudulent. Id., at 644.
On remand, the District Court concluded that where, as
here, state law makes property exempt from the claims of
creditors, no fraudulent conveyance can occur. 65 F. Supp.
2d 651, 657–658 (WD Mich. 1999). It found, however, that
respondent’s husband’s use of nonexempt funds to pay the
mortgage on the entireties property, which placed them be-
yond the reach of creditors, constituted a fraudulent act
under state law, and the court awarded the IRS a share of
the proceeds of the sale of the property equal to that amount.
Id., at 659.

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Both parties appealed the District Court’s decision, the
Government again claiming that its lien attached to the
husband’s interest in the entireties property. The Court of
Appeals held that the prior panel’s opinion was law of the
case on that issue. 233 F. 3d 358, 363–369 (CA6 2000). It
also affirmed the District Court’s determination that the
husband’s mortgage payments were fraudulent. Id., at
369–375.
We granted certiorari to consider the Government’s claim
that respondent’s husband had a separate interest in the en-
tireties property to which the federal tax lien attached. 533
U. S. 976 (2001).
II
Whether the interests of respondent’s husband in the prop-
erty he held as a tenant by the entirety constitutes “property
and rights to property” for the purposes of the federal tax
lien statute, 26 U. S. C. § 6321, is ultimately a question of fed-
eral law. The answer to this federal question, however,
largely depends upon state law. The federal tax lien statute
itself “creates no property rights but merely attaches conse-
quences, federally defined, to rights created under state
law.” United States v. Bess, 357 U. S. 51, 55 (1958); see also
United States v. National Bank of Commerce, 472 U. S. 713,
722 (1985). Accordingly, “[w]e look initially to state law to
determine what rights the taxpayer has in the property the
Government seeks to reach, then to federal law to determine
whether the taxpayer’s state-delineated rights qualify as
‘property’ or ‘rights to property’ within the compass of the
federal tax lien legislation.” Drye v. United States, 528
U. S. 49, 58 (1999).
A common idiom describes property as a “bundle of
sticks”—a collection of individual rights which, in certain
combinations, constitute property. See B. Cardozo, Para-
doxes of Legal Science 129 (1928) (reprint 2000); see also
Dickman v. Commissioner, 465 U. S. 330, 336 (1984). State
law determines only which sticks are in a person’s bundle.

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Whether those sticks qualify as “property” for purposes of
the federal tax lien statute is a question of federal law.
In looking to state law, we must be careful to consider the
substance of the rights state law provides, not merely the
labels the State gives these rights or the conclusions it draws
from them. Such state law labels are irrelevant to the fed-
eral question of which bundles of rights constitute property
that may be attached by a federal tax lien. In Drye v.
United States, supra, we considered a situation where state
law allowed an heir subject to a federal tax lien to disclaim
his interest in the estate. The state law also provided that
such a disclaimer would “creat[e] the legal fiction” that the
heir had predeceased the decedent and would correspond-
ingly be deemed to have had no property interest in the es-
tate. Id., at 53. We unanimously held that this state law
fiction did not control the federal question and looked instead
to the realities of the heir’s interest. We concluded that,
despite the State’s characterization, the heir possessed a
“right to property” in the estate—the right to accept the
inheritance or pass it along to another—to which the federal
lien could attach. Id., at 59–61.
III
We turn first to the question of what rights respondent’s
husband had in the entireties property by virtue of state
law. In order to understand these rights, the tenancy by
the entirety must first be placed in some context.
English common law provided three legal structures for
the concurrent ownership of property that have survived
into modern times: tenancy in common, joint tenancy, and
tenancy by the entirety. 1 G. Thompson, Real Property
§ 4.06(g) (D. Thomas ed. 1994) (hereinafter Thompson). The
tenancy in common is now the most common form of concur-
rent ownership. 7 R. Powell & P. Rohan, Real Property
§ 51.01[3] (M. Wolf ed. 2001) (hereinafter Powell). The com-
mon law characterized tenants in common as each owning

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a separate fractional share in undivided property. Id.,
§ 50.01[1]. Tenants in common may each unilaterally alien-
ate their shares through sale or gift or place encumbrances
upon these shares. They also have the power to pass these
shares to their heirs upon death. Tenants in common have
many other rights in the property, including the right to
use the property, to exclude third parties from it, and
to receive a portion of any income produced from it. Id.,
§§ 50.03–50.06.
Joint tenancies were the predominant form of concurrent
ownership at common law, and still persist in some States
today. 4 Thompson § 31.05. The common law characterized
each joint tenant as possessing the entire estate, rather than
a fractional share: “[J]oint-tenants have one and the same
interest . . . held by one and the same undivided possession.”
2 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 180
(1766). Joint tenants possess many of the rights enjoyed by
tenants in common: the right to use, to exclude, and to enjoy
a share of the property’s income. The main difference be-
tween a joint tenancy and a tenancy in common is that a joint
tenant also has a right of automatic inheritance known as
“survivorship.” Upon the death of one joint tenant, that
tenant’s share in the property does not pass through will or
the rules of intestate succession; rather, the remaining ten-
ant or tenants automatically inherit it. Id., at 183; 7 Powell
§ 51.01[3]. Joint tenants’ right to alienate their individual
shares is also somewhat different. In order for one tenant
to alienate his or her individual interest in the tenancy, the
estate must first be severed—that is, converted to a tenancy
in common with each tenant possessing an equal fractional
share. Id., § 51.04[1]. Most States allowing joint tenancies
facilitate alienation, however, by allowing severance to auto-
matically accompany a conveyance of that interest or any
other overt act indicating an intent to sever. Ibid.
A tenancy by the entirety is a unique sort of concurrent
ownership that can only exist between married persons. 4

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Thompson § 33.02. Because of the common-law fiction that
the husband and wife were one person at law (that person,
practically speaking, was the husband, see J. Cribbet et al.,
Cases and Materials on Property 329 (6th ed. 1990)), Black-
stone did not characterize the tenancy by the entirety as a
form of concurrent ownership at all. Instead, he thought
that entireties property was a form of single ownership by
the marital unity. Orth, Tenancy by the Entirety: The
Strange Career of the Common-Law Marital Estate, 1997
B. Y. U. L. Rev. 35, 38–39. Neither spouse was considered
to own any individual interest in the estate; rather, it be-
longed to the couple.
Like joint tenants, tenants by the entirety enjoy the right
of survivorship. Also like a joint tenancy, unilateral alien-
ation of a spouse’s interest in entireties property is typically
not possible without severance. Unlike joint tenancies,
however, tenancies by the entirety cannot easily be severed
unilaterally. 4 Thompson § 33.08(b). Typically, severance
requires the consent of both spouses, id., § 33.08(a), or the
ending of the marriage in divorce, id., § 33.08(d). At com-
mon law, all of the other rights associated with the entireties
property belonged to the husband: as the head of the house-
hold, he could control the use of the property and the exclu-
sion of others from it and enjoy all of the income produced
from it. Id., § 33.05. The husband’s control of the property
was so extensive that, despite the rules on alienation, the
common law eventually provided that he could unilaterally
alienate entireties property without severance subject only
to the wife’s survivorship interest. Orth, supra, at 40–41.
With the passage of the Married Women’s Property Acts
in the late 19th century granting women distinct rights with
respect to marital property, most States either abolished the
tenancy by the entirety or altered it significantly. 7 Powell
§ 52.01[2]. Michigan’s version of the estate is typical of the
modern tenancy by the entirety. Following Blackstone,
Michigan characterizes its tenancy by the entirety as creat-

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ing no individual rights whatsoever: “It is well settled under
the law of this State that one tenant by the entirety has no
interest separable from that of the other . . . . Each is
vested with an entire title.” Long v. Earle, 277 Mich. 505,
517, 269 N. W. 577, 581 (1936). And yet, in Michigan, each
tenant by the entirety possesses the right of survivorship.
Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 554.872(g) (West Supp. 1997),
recodified at § 700.2901(2)(g) (West Supp. Pamphlet 2001).
Each spouse—the wife as well as the husband—may also use
the property, exclude third parties from it, and receive an
equal share of the income produced by it. See § 557.71
(West 1988). Neither spouse may unilaterally alienate or
encumber the property, Long v. Earle, supra, at 517, 269
N. W., at 581; Rogers v. Rogers, 136 Mich. App. 125, 134, 356
N. W. 2d 288, 292 (1984), although this may be accomplished
with mutual consent, Eadus v. Hunter, 249 Mich. 190, 228
N. W. 782 (1930). Divorce ends the tenancy by the en-
tirety, generally giving each spouse an equal interest in
the property as a tenant in common, unless the divorce de-
cree specifies otherwise. Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 552.102
(West 1988).
In determining whether respondent’s husband possessed
“property” or “rights to property” within the meaning of 26
U. S. C. § 6321, we look to the individual rights created by
these state law rules. According to Michigan law, respond-
ent’s husband had, among other rights, the following rights
with respect to the entireties property: the right to use the
property, the right to exclude third parties from it, the right
to a share of income produced from it, the right of survivor-
ship, the right to become a tenant in common with equal
shares upon divorce, the right to sell the property with
the respondent’s consent and to receive half the proceeds
from such a sale, the right to place an encumbrance on the
property with the respondent’s consent, and the right to
block respondent from selling or encumbering the property
unilaterally.

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IV
We turn now to the federal question of whether the rights
Michigan law granted to respondent’s husband as a tenant
by the entirety qualify as “property” or “rights to property”
under § 6321. The statutory language authorizing the tax
lien “is broad and reveals on its face that Congress meant to
reach every interest in property that a taxpayer might
have.” United States v. National Bank of Commerce, 472
U. S., at 719–720. “Stronger language could hardly have
been selected to reveal a purpose to assure the collection of
taxes.” Glass City Bank v. United States, 326 U. S. 265,
267 (1945). We conclude that the husband’s rights in the
entireties property fall within this broad statutory language.
Michigan law grants a tenant by the entirety some of the
most essential property rights: the right to use the property,
to receive income produced by it, and to exclude others from
it. See Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U. S. 374, 384 (1994)
(“[T]he right to exclude others” is “ ‘one of the most essential
sticks in the bundle of rights that are commonly character-
ized as property’ ” (quoting Kaiser Aetna v. United States,
444 U. S. 164, 176 (1979))); Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhat-
tan CATV Corp., 458 U. S. 419, 435 (1982) (including “use” as
one of the “[p]roperty rights in a physical thing”). These
rights alone may be sufficient to subject the husband’s inter-
est in the entireties property to the federal tax lien. They
gave him a substantial degree of control over the entireties
property, and, as we noted in Drye, “in determining whether
a federal taxpayer’s state-law rights constitute ‘property’ or
‘rights to property,’ [t]he important consideration is the
breadth of the control the [taxpayer] could exercise over the
property.” 528 U. S., at 61 (some internal quotation marks
omitted).
The husband’s rights in the estate, however, went beyond
use, exclusion, and income. He also possessed the right to
alienate (or otherwise encumber) the property with the con-
sent of respondent, his wife. Loretto, supra, at 435 (the

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right to “dispose” of an item is a property right). It is true,
as respondent notes, that he lacked the right to unilaterally
alienate the property, a right that is often in the bundle of
property rights. See also post, at 296–297 (Thomas, J., dis-
senting). There is no reason to believe, however, that this
one stick—the right of unilateral alienation—is essential to
the category of “property.”
This Court has already stated that federal tax liens may
attach to property that cannot be unilaterally alienated. In
United States v. Rodgers, 461 U. S. 677 (1983), we considered
the Federal Government’s power to foreclose homestead
property attached by a federal tax lien. Texas law provided
that “ ‘the owner or claimant of the property claimed as
homestead [may not], if married, sell or abandon the home-
stead without the consent of the other spouse.’ ” Id., at 684–
685 (quoting Tex. Const., Art. 16, § 50). We nonetheless
stated that “[i]n the homestead context . . . , there is no
doubt . . . that not only do both spouses (rather than neither)
have an independent interest in the homestead property, but
that a federal tax lien can at least attach to each of those
interests.” 461 U. S., at 703, n. 31; cf. Drye, supra, at 60,
n. 7 (noting that “an interest in a spendthrift trust has been
held to constitute ‘ “property” for purposes of § 6321’ even
though the beneficiary may not transfer that interest to
third parties”).
Excluding property from a federal tax lien simply because
the taxpayer does not have the power to unilaterally alienate
it would, moreover, exempt a rather large amount of what is
commonly thought of as property. It would exempt not only
the type of property discussed in Rodgers, but also some
community property. Community property States often
provide that real community property cannot be alienated
without the consent of both spouses. See, e. g., Ariz. Rev.
Stat. Ann. § 25–214(C) (2000); Cal. Fam. Code Ann. § 1102
(West 1994); Idaho Code § 32–912 (1996); La. Civ. Code Ann.,
Art. 2347 (West Supp. 2002); Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 123.230(3)

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(Supp. 2001); N. M. Stat. Ann. § 40–3–13 (1999); Wash. Rev.
Code § 26.16.030(3) (1994). Accordingly, the fact that re-
spondent’s husband could not unilaterally alienate the prop-
erty does not preclude him from possessing “property and
rights to property” for the purposes of § 6321.
Respondent’s husband also possessed the right of survivor-
ship—the right to automatically inherit the whole of the es-
tate should his wife predecease him. Respondent argues
that this interest was merely an expectancy, which we sug-
gested in Drye would not constitute “property” for the pur-
poses of a federal tax lien. 528 U. S., at 60, n. 7 (“[We do
not mean to suggest] that an expectancy that has pecuniary
value . . . would fall within § 6321 prior to the time it ripens
into a present estate”). Drye did not decide this question,
however, nor do we need to do so here. As we have dis-
cussed above, a number of the sticks in respondent’s hus-
band’s bundle were presently existing. It is therefore not
necessary to decide whether the right to survivorship alone
would qualify as “property” or “rights to property” under
§ 6321.
That the rights of respondent’s husband in the entireties
property constitute “property” or “rights to property” “be-
longing to” him is further underscored by the fact that, if
the conclusion were otherwise, the entireties property would
belong to no one for the purposes of § 6321. Respondent had
no more interest in the property than her husband; if neither
of them had a property interest in the entireties property,
who did? This result not only seems absurd, but would also
allow spouses to shield their property from federal taxation
by classifying it as entireties property, facilitating abuse of
the federal tax system. Johnson, After Drye: The Likely
Attachment of the Federal Tax Lien to Tenancy-by-the-
Entireties Interests, 75 Ind. L. J. 1163, 1171 (2000).
Justice Scalia’s and Justice Thomas’ dissents claim
that the conclusion that the husband possessed an interest
in the entireties property to which the federal tax lien could

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attach is in conflict with the rules for tax liens relating to
partnership property. See post, at 289 (opinion of Scalia,
J.); see also post, at 295–296, n. 4 (opinion of Thomas, J.).
This is not so. As the authorities cited by Justice Thomas
reflect, the federal tax lien does attach to an individual part-
ner’s interest in the partnership, that is, to the fair market
value of his or her share in the partnership assets. Ibid.
(citing B. Bittker & M. McMahon, Federal Income Taxation
of Individuals ¶ 44.5[4][a] (2d ed. 1995 and 2000 Cum. Supp.));
see also 1 A. Bromberg & L. Ribstein, Partnership § 3.05(d)
(2002–1 Supp.) (hereinafter Bromberg & Ribstein) (citing
Uniform Partnership Act § 28, 6 U. L. A. 744 (1995)). As a
holder of this lien, the Federal Government is entitled to
“receive . . . the profits to which the assigning partner would
otherwise be entitled,” including predissolution distributions
and the proceeds from dissolution. Uniform Partnership
Act § 27(1), id., at 736.
There is, however, a difference between the treatment of
entireties property and partnership assets. The Federal
Government may not compel the sale of partnership assets
(although it may foreclose on the partner’s interest, 1 Brom-
berg & Ribstein § 3.05(d)(3)(iv)). It is this difference that
is reflected in Justice Scalia’s assertion that partnership
property cannot be encumbered by an individual partner’s
debts. See post, at 289. This disparity in treatment be-
tween the two forms of ownership, however, arises from our
decision in United States v. Rodgers, supra (holding that the
Government may foreclose on property even where the co-
owners lack the right of unilateral alienation), and not our
holding today. In this case, it is instead the dissenters’ the-
ory that departs from partnership law, as it would hold that
the Federal Government’s lien does not attach to the hus-
band’s interest in the entireties property at all, whereas the
lien may attach to an individual’s interest in partnership
property.

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Respondent argues that, whether or not we would con-
clude that respondent’s husband had an interest in the en-
tireties property, legislative history indicates that Congress
did not intend that a federal tax lien should attach to such
an interest. In 1954, the Senate rejected a proposed amend-
ment to the tax lien statute that would have provided that
the lien attach to “property or rights to property (including
the interest of such person as tenant by the entirety).”
S. Rep. No. 1622, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., 575 (1954). We have
elsewhere held, however, that failed legislative proposals are
“a particularly dangerous ground on which to rest an inter-
pretation of a prior statute,” Pension Benefit Guaranty Cor-
poration v. LTV Corp., 496 U. S. 633, 650 (1990), reasoning
that “ ‘[c]ongressional inaction lacks persuasive significance
because several equally tenable inferences may be drawn
from such inaction, including the inference that the existing
legislation already incorporated the offered change.’ ” Cen-
tral Bank of Denver, N. A. v. First Interstate Bank of Den-
ver, N. A., 511 U. S. 164, 187 (1994). This case exemplifies
the risk of relying on such legislative history. As we noted
in United States v. Rodgers, 461 U. S., at 704, n. 31, some
legislative history surrounding the 1954 amendment indi-
cates that the House intended the amendment to be nothing
more than a “clarification” of existing law, and that the Sen-
ate rejected the amendment only because it found it “super-
fluous.” See H. R. Rep. No. 1337, 83d Cong., 2d Sess., A406
(1954) (noting that the amendment would “clarif[y] the term
‘property and rights to property’ by expressly including
therein the interest of the delinquent taxpayer in an estate
by the entirety”); S. Rep. No. 1622, at 575 (“It is not clear
what change in existing law would be made by the paren-
thetical phrase. The deletion of the phrase is intended to
continue the existing law”).
The same ambiguity that plagues the legislative history
accompanies the common-law background of Congress’ en-
actment of the tax lien statute. Respondent argues that

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288 UNITED STATES v. CRAFT
Opinion of the Court
Congress could not have intended the passage of the federal
tax lien statute to alter the generally accepted rule that liens
could not attach to entireties property. See Astoria Fed.
Sav. & Loan Assn. v. Solimino, 501 U. S. 104, 108 (1991)
(“[W]here a common-law principle is well established . . . the
courts may take it as given that Congress has legislated with
an expectation that the principle will apply except ‘when a
statutory purpose to the contrary is evident’ ”). The
common-law rule was not so well established with respect to
the application of a federal tax lien that we must assume
that Congress considered the impact of its enactment on the
question now before us. There was not much of a common-
law background on the question of the application of federal
tax liens, as the first court of appeals cases dealing with the
application of such a lien did not arise until the 1950’s.
United States v. Hutcherson, 188 F. 2d 326 (CA8 1951); Raf-
faele v. Granger, 196 F. 2d 620 (CA3 1952). This background
is not sufficient to overcome the broad statutory language
Congress did enact, authorizing the lien to attach to “all
property and rights to property” a taxpayer might have.
We therefore conclude that respondent’s husband’s interest
in the entireties property constituted “property” or “rights
to property” for the purposes of the federal tax lien statute.
We recognize that Michigan makes a different choice with
respect to state law creditors: “[L]and held by husband and
wife as tenants by entirety is not subject to levy under exe-
cution on judgment rendered against either husband or wife
alone.” Sanford v. Bertrau, 204 Mich. 244, 247, 169 N. W.
880, 881 (1918). But that by no means dictates our choice.
The interpretation of 26 U. S. C. § 6321 is a federal question,
and in answering that question we are in no way bound by
state courts’ answers to similar questions involving state
law. As we elsewhere have held, “ ‘exempt status under
state law does not bind the federal collector.’ ” Drye v.
United States, 528 U. S., at 59. See also Rodgers, supra,
at 701 (clarifying that the Supremacy Clause “provides the

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289 Cite as: 535 U. S. 274 (2002)
Scalia, J., dissenting
underpinning for the Federal Government’s right to sweep
aside state-created exemptions”).
V
We express no view as to the proper valuation of respond-
ent’s husband’s interest in the entireties property, leaving
this for the Sixth Circuit to determine on remand. We note,
however, that insofar as the amount is dependent upon
whether the 1989 conveyance was fraudulent, see post, at
290, n. 1 (Thomas, J., dissenting), this case is somewhat
anomalous. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s
judgment that this conveyance was not fraudulent, and the
Government has not sought certiorari review of that deter-
mination. Since the District Court’s judgment was based
on the notion that, because the federal tax lien could not
attach to the property, transferring it could not constitute an
attempt to evade the Government creditor, 65 F. Supp. 2d,
at 657–659, in future cases, the fraudulent conveyance ques-
tion will no doubt be answered differently.
The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals
for the Sixth Circuit is accordingly reversed, and the case is
remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Justice Scalia, with whom Justice Thomas joins,
dissenting.
I join Justice Thomas’s dissent, which points out (to no
relevant response from the Court) that a State’s decision to
treat the marital partnership as a separate legal entity,
whose property cannot be encumbered by the debts of its
individual members, is no more novel and no more “artificial”
than a State’s decision to treat the commercial partnership
as a separate legal entity, whose property cannot be encum-
bered by the debts of its individual members.
I write separately to observe that the Court nullifies (inso-
far as federal taxes are concerned, at least) a form of prop-

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290 UNITED STATES v. CRAFT
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erty ownership that was of particular benefit to the stay-at-
home spouse or mother. She is overwhelmingly likely to be
the survivor that obtains title to the unencumbered prop-
erty; and she (as opposed to her business-world husband) is
overwhelmingly unlikely to be the source of the individual
indebtedness against which a tenancy by the entirety pro-
tects. It is regrettable that the Court has eliminated a large
part of this traditional protection retained by many States.
Justice Thomas, with whom Justice Stevens and
Justice Scalia join, dissenting.
The Court today allows the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) to reach proceeds from the sale of real property that
did not belong to the taxpayer, respondent’s husband, Don
Craft, 1 because, in the Court’s view, he “possesse[d] individ-
ual rights in the [tenancy by the entirety] estate sufficient to
constitute ‘property’ or ‘rights to property’ for the purposes
of the lien” created by 26 U. S. C. § 6321. Ante, at 276. The
Court does not contest that the tax liability the IRS seeks
to satisfy is Mr. Craft’s alone, and does not claim that, under
Michigan law, real property held as a tenancy by the entirety
belongs to either spouse individually. Nor does the Court
1 The Grand Rapids property was tenancy by the entirety property
owned by Mr. and Mrs. Craft when the tax lien attached, but was conveyed
by the Crafts to Mrs. Craft by quitclaim deed in 1989. That conveyance
terminated the entirety estate. Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 557.101 (West
1988); see also United States v. Certain Real Property Located at 2525
Leroy Lane, 910 F. 2d 343, 351 (CA6 1990). The District Court and Court
of Appeals both held that the transfer did not constitute a fraudulent con-
veyance, a ruling the Government has not appealed. The IRS is undoubt-
edly entitled to any proceeds that Mr. Craft received or to which he was
entitled from the 1989 conveyance of the tenancy by the entirety property
for $1; at that point the tenancy by the entirety estate was destroyed and
at least half of the proceeds, or 50 cents, was “property” or “rights to
property” “belonging to” Mr. Craft. By contrast, the proceeds that the
IRS claims here are from Mrs. Craft’s 1992 sale of the property to a third
party. At the time of the sale, she owned the property in fee simple, and
accordingly Mr. Craft neither received nor was entitled to these funds.

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Thomas, J., dissenting
suggest that the federal tax lien attaches to particular
“rights to property” held individually by Mr. Craft. Rather,
borrowing the metaphor of “property as a ‘bundle of sticks’—
a collection of individual rights which, in certain combina-
tions, constitute property,” ante, at 278, the Court proposes
that so long as sufficient “sticks” in the bundle of “rights to
property” “belong to” a delinquent taxpayer, the lien can
attach as if the property itself belonged to the taxpayer,
ante, at 285.
This amorphous construct ignores the primacy of state law
in defining property interests, eviscerates the statutory dis-
tinction between “property” and “rights to property” drawn
by § 6321, and conflicts with an unbroken line of authority
from this Court, the lower courts, and the IRS. Its applica-
tion is all the more unsupportable in this case because, in my
view, it is highly unlikely that the limited individual “rights
to property” recognized in a tenancy by the entirety under
Michigan law are themselves subject to lien. I would affirm
the Court of Appeals and hold that Mr. Craft did not have
“property” or “rights to property” to which the federal tax
lien could attach.
I
Title 26 U. S. C. § 6321 provides that a federal tax lien at-
taches to “all property and rights to property, whether real
or personal, belonging to” a delinquent taxpayer. It is un-
contested that a federal tax lien itself “creates no property
rights but merely attaches consequences, federally defined,
to rights created under state law.” United States v. Bess,
357 U. S. 51, 55 (1958) (construing the 1939 version of the
federal tax lien statute). Consequently, the Government’s
lien under § 6321 “cannot extend beyond the property inter-
ests held by the delinquent taxpayer,” United States v.
Rodgers, 461 U. S. 677, 690–691 (1983), under state law. Be-
fore today, no one disputed that the IRS, by operation of
§ 6321, “steps into the taxpayer’s shoes,” and has the same
rights as the taxpayer in property or rights to property sub-

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292 UNITED STATES v. CRAFT
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ject to the lien. B. Bittker & M. McMahon, Federal Income
Taxation of Individuals ¶ 44.5[4][a] (2d ed. 1995 and 2000
Cum. Supp.) (hereinafter Bittker). I would not expand
“ ‘the nature of the legal interest’ ” the taxpayer has in the
property beyond those interests recognized under state law.
Aquilino v. United States, 363 U. S. 509, 513 (1960) (citing
Morgan v. Commissioner, 309 U. S. 78, 82 (1940)).
A
If the Grand Rapids property “belong[ed] to” Mr. Craft
under state law prior to the termination of the tenancy by
the entirety, the federal tax lien would have attached to the
Grand Rapids property. But that is not this case. As the
Court recognizes, pursuant to Michigan law, as under Eng-
lish common law, property held as a tenancy by the entirety
does not belong to either spouse, but to a single entity com-
posed of the married persons. See ante, at 280–282. Nei-
ther spouse has “any separate interest in such an estate.”
Sanford v. Bertrau, 204 Mich. 244, 249, 169 N. W. 880, 882
(1918); see also Long v. Earle, 277 Mich. 505, 517, 269 N. W.
577, 581 (1936) (“Each [spouse] is vested with an entire title
and as against the one who attempts alone to convey or in-
cumber such real estate, the other has an absolute title”).
An entireties estate constitutes an indivisible “sole tenancy.”
See Budwit v. Herr, 339 Mich. 265, 272, 63 N. W. 2d 841, 844
(1954); see also Tyler v. United States, 281 U. S. 497, 501
(1930) (“[T]he tenants constitute a unit; neither can dispose
of any part of the estate without the consent of the other;
and the whole continues in the survivor”). Because Michi-
gan does not recognize a separate spousal interest in the
Grand Rapids property, it did not “belong” to either respond-
ent or her husband individually when the IRS asserted its
lien for Mr. Craft’s individual tax liability. Thus, the prop-
erty was not property to which the federal tax lien could
attach for Mr. Craft’s tax liability.

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Thomas, J., dissenting
The Court does not dispute this characterization of Michi-
gan’s law with respect to the essential attributes of the ten-
ancy by the entirety estate. However, relying on Drye v.
United States, 528 U. S. 49, 59 (1999), which in turn relied
upon United States v. Irvine, 511 U. S. 224 (1994), and United
States v. Mitchell, 403 U. S. 190 (1971), the Court suggests
that Michigan’s definition of the tenancy by the entirety es-
tate should be overlooked because federal tax law is not con-
trolled by state legal fictions concerning property ownership.
Ante, at 279. But the Court misapprehends the application
of Drye to this case.
Drye, like Irvine and Mitchell before it, was concerned
not with whether state law recognized “property” as belong-
ing to the taxpayer in the first place, but rather with
whether state laws could disclaim or exempt such property
from federal tax liability after the property interest was cre-
ated. Drye held only that a state-law disclaimer could not
retroactively undo a vested right in an estate that the tax-
payer already held, and that a federal lien therefore attached
to the taxpayer’s interest in the estate. 528 U. S., at 61 (rec-
ognizing that a disclaimer does not restore the status quo
ante because the heir “determines who will receive the prop-
erty—himself if he does not disclaim, a known other if he
does”). Similarly, in Irvine, the Court held that a state law
allowing an individual to disclaim a gift could not force the
Court to be “struck blind” to the fact that the transfer of
“property” or “property rights” for which the gift tax was
due had already occurred; “state property transfer rules do
not transfer into federal taxation rules.” 511 U. S., at 239–
240 (emphasis added). See also Mitchell, supra, at 204
(holding that right to renounce a marital interest under state
law does not indicate that the taxpayer had no right to prop-
erty before the renunciation).
Extending this Court’s “state law fiction” jurisprudence to
determine whether property or rights to property exist
under state law in the first place works a sea change in the

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294 UNITED STATES v. CRAFT
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role States have traditionally played in “creating and defin-
ing” property interests. By erasing the careful line be-
tween state laws that purport to disclaim or exempt prop-
erty interests after the fact, which the federal tax lien does
not respect, and state laws’ definition of property and prop-
erty rights, which the federal tax lien does respect, the
Court does not follow Drye, but rather creates a new federal
common law of property. This contravenes the previously
settled rule that the definition and scope of property is left
to the States. See Aquilino, supra, at 513, n. 3 (recognizing
unsoundness of leaving the definition of property interests
to a nebulous body of federal law, “because it ignores the
long-established role that the States have played in creating
property interests and places upon the courts the task of
attempting to ascertain a taxpayer’s property rights under
an undefined rule of federal law”).
B
That the Grand Rapids property does not belong to
Mr. Craft under Michigan law does not end the inquiry, how-
ever, since the federal tax lien attaches not only to “prop-
erty” but also to any “rights to property” belonging to the
taxpayer. While the Court concludes that a laundry list of
“rights to property” belonged to Mr. Craft as a tenant by the
entirety,2 it does not suggest that the tax lien attached to
any of these particular rights.3 Instead, the Court gathers
2 The parties disagree as to whether Michigan law recognizes the “rights
to property” identified by the Court as individual rights “belonging to”
each tenant in entireties property. Without deciding a question better
resolved by the Michigan courts, for the purposes of this case I will as-
sume, arguendo, that Michigan law recognizes separate interests in these
“rights to property.”
3 Nor does the Court explain how such “rights to property” survived the
destruction of the tenancy by the entirety, although, for all intents and
purposes, it acknowledges that such rights as it identifies exist by virtue
of the tenancy by the entirety estate. Even Judge Ryan’s concurrence in
the Sixth Circuit’s first ruling in this matter is best read as making the

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Thomas, J., dissenting
these rights together and opines that there were sufficient
sticks to form a bundle, so that “respondent’s husband’s in-
terest in the entireties property constituted ‘property’ or
‘rights to property’ for the purposes of the federal tax lien
statute.” Ante, at 288, 285.
But the Court’s “sticks in a bundle” metaphor collapses
precisely because of the distinction expressly drawn by the
statute, which distinguishes between “property” and “rights
to property.” The Court refrains from ever stating whether
this case involves “property” or “rights to property” even
though § 6321 specifically provides that the federal tax lien
attaches to “property” and “rights to property” “belonging
to” the delinquent taxpayer, and not to an imprecise con-
struct of “individual rights in the estate sufficient to consti-
tute ‘property’ or ‘rights to property’ for the purposes of the
lien.” Ante, at 276. 4
Federal Government’s right to execute its lien dependent upon the factual
finding that the conveyance was a fraudulent transaction. See 140 F. 3d
638, 648–649 (1998).
4 The Court’s reasoning that because a taxpayer has rights to property
a federal tax lien can attach not only to those rights but also to the prop-
erty itself could have far-reaching consequences. As illustration, in the
partnership setting as elsewhere, the Government’s lien under § 6321
places the Government in no better position than the taxpayer to whom
the property belonged: “[F]or example, the lien for a partner’s unpaid
income taxes attaches to his interest in the firm, not to the firm’s assets.”
Bittker ¶ 44.5[4][a]. Though partnership property currently is “not sub-
ject to attachment or execution, except on a claim against the part-
nership,” Rev. Rul. 73–24, 1973–1 Cum. Bull. 602; cf. United States v.
Kaufman, 267 U. S. 408 (1925), under the logic of the Court’s opinion
partnership property could be attached for the tax liability of an individ-
ual partner. Like a tenant in a tenancy by the entirety, the partner has
significant rights to use, enjoy, and control the partnership property in
conjunction with his partners. I see no principled way to distinguish
between the propriety of attaching the federal tax lien to partnership
property to satisfy the tax liability of a partner, in contravention of cur-
rent practice, and the propriety of attaching the federal tax lien to tenancy
by the entirety property in order to satisfy the tax liability of one spouse,
also in contravention of current practice. I do not doubt that a tax lien

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296 UNITED STATES v. CRAFT
Thomas, J., dissenting
Rather than adopt the majority’s approach, I would ask
specifically, as the statute does, whether Mr. Craft had any
particular “rights to property” to which the federal tax lien
could attach. He did not.5 Such “rights to property” that
have been subject to the § 6321 lien are valuable and “pecuni-
ary,” i. e., they can be attached, and levied upon or sold by
the Government.6 Drye, 528 U. S., at 58–60, and n. 7. With
such rights subject to lien, the taxpayer’s interest has “rip-
en[ed] into a present estate” of some form and is more than
a mere expectancy, id., at 60, n. 7, and thus the taxpayer
has an apparent right “to channel that value to [another],”
id., at 61.
In contrast, a tenant in a tenancy by the entirety not only
lacks a present divisible vested interest in the property and
control with respect to the sale, encumbrance, and transfer
of the property, but also does not possess the ability to devise
any portion of the property because it is subject to the oth-
er’s indestructible right of survivorship. Rogers v. Rogers,
may attach to a partner’s partnership interest to satisfy his individual tax
liability, but it is well settled that the lien does not, thereby, attach to
property belonging to the partnership. The problem for the IRS in this
case is that, unlike a partnership interest, such limited rights that
Mr. Craft had in the Grand Rapids property are not the kind of rights to
property to which a lien can attach, and the Grand Rapids property itself
never “belong[ed] to” him under Michigan law.
5 Even such rights as Mr. Craft arguably had in the Grand Rapids prop-
erty bear no resemblance to those to which a federal tax lien has ever
attached. See W. Elliott, Federal Tax Collections, Liens, and Levies
¶¶ 9.09[3][a]–[f] (2d ed. 1995 and 2000 Cum. Supp.) (hereinafter Elliott)
(listing examples of rights to property to which a federal tax lien attaches,
such as the right to compel payment; the right to withdraw money from a
bank account, or to receive money from accounts receivable; wages earned
but not paid; installment payments under a contract of sale of real estate;
annuity payments; a beneficiary’s rights to payment under a spendthrift
trust; a liquor license; an easement; the taxpayer’s interest in a timeshare;
options; the taxpayer’s interest in an employee benefit plan or individual
retirement account).
6 See 26 U. S. C. §§ 6331, 6335–6336.

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Thomas, J., dissenting
136 Mich. App. 125, 135–137, 356 N. W. 2d 288, 293–294
(1984). This latter fact makes the property significantly dif-
ferent from community property, where each spouse has
a present one-half vested interest in the whole, which may
be devised by will or otherwise to a person other than
the spouse. See 4 G. Thompson, Real Property § 37.14(a)
(D. Thomas ed. 1994) (noting that a married person’s power
to devise one-half of the community property is “consistent
with the fundamental characteristic of community property”:
“community ownership means that each spouse owns 50% of
each community asset”).7 See also Drye, 528 U. S., at 61
(“[I]n determining whether a federal taxpayer’s state-law
rights constitute ‘property’ or ‘rights to property,’ the
important consideration is the breadth of the control the
taxpayer could exercise over the property” (emphasis added,
citation and brackets omitted)).
It is clear that some of the individual rights of a tenant in
entireties property are primarily personal, dependent upon
the taxpayer’s status as a spouse, and similarly not suscepti-
ble to a tax lien. For example, the right to use the property
in conjunction with one’s spouse and to exclude all others
appears particularly ill suited to being transferred to an-
other, see ibid., and to lack “exchangeable value,” id., at 56.
Nor do other identified rights rise to the level of “rights
to property” to which a § 6321 lien can attach, because they
represent, at most, a contingent future interest, or an “ex-
pectancy” that has not “ripen[ed] into a present estate.”
Id., at 60, n. 7 (“Nor do we mean to suggest that an expec-
7 And it is similarly different from the situation in United States v.
Rodgers, 461 U. S. 677 (1983), where the question was not whether a
vested property interest in the family home to which the federal tax lien
could attach “belong[ed] to” the taxpayer. Rather, in Rodgers, the only
question was whether the federal tax lien for the husband’s tax liability
could be foreclosed against the property under 26 U. S. C. § 7403, despite
his wife’s homestead right under state law. See 461 U. S., at 701–703,
and n. 31.

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298 UNITED STATES v. CRAFT
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tancy that has pecuniary value and is transferable under
state law would fall within § 6321 prior to the time it ripens
into a present estate”). Cf. Bess, 357 U. S., at 55–56 (holding
that no federal tax lien could attach to proceeds of the tax-
payer’s life insurance policy because “[i]t would be anoma-
lous to view as ‘property’ subject to lien proceeds never
within the insured’s reach to enjoy”). By way of example,
the survivorship right wholly depends upon one spouse out-
living the other, at which time the survivor gains “substan-
tial rights, in respect of the property, theretofore never en-
joyed by [the] survivor.” Tyler, 281 U. S., at 503. While
the Court explains that it is “not necessary to decide
whether the right to survivorship alone would qualify as
‘property’ or ‘rights to property’ ” under § 6321, ante, at 285,
the facts of this case demonstrate that it would not. Even
assuming both that the right of survivability continued after
the demise of the tenancy estate and that the tax lien could
attach to such a contingent future right, creating a lienable
interest upon the death of the nonliable spouse, it would not
help the IRS here; respondent’s husband predeceased her in
1998, and there is no right of survivorship at issue in this
case.
Similarly, while one spouse might escape the absolute limi-
tations on individual action with respect to tenancy by the
entirety property by obtaining the right to one-half of the
property upon divorce, or by agreeing with the other spouse
to sever the tenancy by the entirety, neither instance is an
event of sufficient certainty to constitute a “right to prop-
erty” for purposes of § 6321. Finally, while the federal tax
lien could arguably have attached to a tenant’s right to any
“rents, products, income, or profits” of real property held as
tenants by the entirety, Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 557.71
(West 1988), the Grand Rapids property created no rents,
products, income, or profits for the tax lien to attach to.
In any event, all such rights to property, dependent as
they are upon the existence of the tenancy by the entirety

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estate, were likely destroyed by the quitclaim deed that sev-
ered the tenancy. See n. 1, supra. Unlike a lien attached
to the property itself, which would survive a conveyance, a
lien attached to a “right to property” falls squarely within
the maxim that “the tax collector not only steps into the
taxpayer’s shoes but must go barefoot if the shoes wear out.”
Bittker ¶ 44.5[4][a] (noting that “a state judgment termi-
nating the taxpayer’s rights to an asset also extinguishes
the federal tax lien attached thereto”). See also Elliott
¶ 9.09[3][d][i] (explaining that while a tax lien may attach to
a taxpayer’s option on property, if the option terminates, the
Government’s lien rights would terminate as well).
Accordingly, I conclude that Mr. Craft had neither “prop-
erty” nor “rights to property” to which the federal tax lien
could attach.
II
That the federal tax lien did not attach to the Grand Rap-
ids property is further supported by the consensus among
the lower courts. For more than 50 years, every federal
court reviewing tenancies by the entirety in States with a
similar understanding of tenancy by the entirety as Michigan
has concluded that a federal tax lien cannot attach to such
property to satisfy an individual spouse’s tax liability.8 This
8 See IRS v. Gaster, 42 F. 3d 787, 791 (CA3 1994) (concluding that the
IRS is not entitled to a lien on property owned as a tenancy by the entirety
to satisfy the tax obligations of one spouse); Pitts v. United States, 946
F. 2d 1569, 1571–1572 (CA4 1991) (same); United States v. American Nat.
Bank of Jacksonville, 255 F. 2d 504, 507 (CA5), cert. denied, 358 U. S. 835
(1958) (same); Raffaele v. Granger, 196 F. 2d 620, 622–623 (CA3 1952)
(same); United States v. Hutcherson, 188 F. 2d 326, 331 (CA8 1951) (ex-
plaining that the interest of one spouse in tenancy by the entirety prop-
erty “is not a right to property or property in any sense”); United States
v. Nathanson, 60 F. Supp. 193, 194 (ED Mich. 1945) (finding no designation
in the Federal Revenue Act for imposing tax upon property held by the
entirety for taxes due from one person alone); Shaw v. United States, 94
F. Supp. 245, 246 (WD Mich. 1939) (recognizing that the nature of the
estate under Michigan law precludes the tax lien from attaching to ten-

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300 UNITED STATES v. CRAFT
Thomas, J., dissenting
consensus is supported by the IRS’ consistent recognition,
arguably against its own interest, that a federal tax lien
against one spouse cannot attach to property or rights to
property held as a tenancy by the entirety.9
That the Court fails to so much as mention this consensus,
let alone address it or give any reason for overruling it, is
puzzling. While the positions of the lower courts and the
IRS do not bind this Court, one would be hard pressed to
explain why the combined weight of these judicial and ad-
ministrative sources—including the IRS’ instructions to its
own employees—do not constitute relevant authority.
ancy by the entirety property for the tax liability of one spouse). See
also Benson v. United States, 442 F. 2d 1221, 1223 (CADC 1971) (recogniz-
ing the Government’s concession that property owned by the parties as
tenants by the entirety cannot be subjected to a tax lien for the debt
of one tenant); Cole v. Cardoza, 441 F. 2d 1337, 1343 (CA6 1971) (noting
Government concession that, under Michigan law, it had no valid claim
against real property held by tenancy by the entirety).
9 See, e. g., Internal Revenue Manual § 5.8.4.2.3 (RIA 2002), available at
WESTLAW, RIA–IRM database (Mar. 29, 2002) (listing “property owned
as tenants by the entirety” as among the assets beyond the reach of the
Government’s tax lien); id., § 5.6.1.2.3 (recognizing that a consensual lien
may be appropriate “when the federal tax lien does not attach to the prop-
erty in question. For example, an assessment exists against only one
spouse and the federal tax lien does not attach to real property held as
tenants by the entirety”); IRS Chief Counsel Advisory (Aug. 17, 2001)
(noting that consensual liens, or mortgages, are to be used “as a means of
securing the Government’s right to collect from property the assessment
lien does not attach to, such as real property held as a tenancy by the
entirety” (emphasis added)); IRS Litigation Bulletin No. 407 (Aug. 1994)
(“Traditionally, the government has taken the view that a federal tax lien
against a single debtor-spouse does not attach to property or rights to
property held by both spouses as tenants by the entirety”); IRS Litigation
Bulletin No. 388 (Jan. 1993) (explaining that neither the Department of
Justice nor IRS chief counsel interpreted United States v. Rodgers, 461
U. S. 677 (1983), to mean that a federal tax lien against one spouse encum-
bers his or her interest in entireties property, and noting that it “do[es]
not believe the Department will again argue the broader interpretation of
Rodgers,” which would extend the reach of the federal tax lien to property
held by the entireties); Benson, supra, at 1223; Cardoza, supra, at 1343.

535US1 Unit: $U39 [09-18-03 17:31:30] PAGES PGT: OPIN
301 Cite as: 535 U. S. 274 (2002)
Thomas, J., dissenting
III
Finally, while the majority characterizes Michigan’s view
that the tenancy by the entirety property does not belong to
the individual spouses as a “state law fiction,” ante, at 276,
our precedents, including Drye, 528 U. S., at 58–60, hold that
state, not federal, law defines property interests. Owner-
ship by “the marriage” is admittedly a fiction of sorts, but
so is a partnership or corporation. There is no basis for ig-
noring this fiction so long as federal law does not define prop-
erty, particularly since the tenancy by the entirety property
remains subject to lien for the tax liability of both tenants.
Nor do I accept the Court’s unsupported assumption that
its holding today is necessary because a contrary result
would “facilitat[e] abuse of the federal tax system.” Ante,
at 285. The Government created this straw man, Brief for
United States 30–32, suggesting that the property transfer
from the tenancy by the entirety to respondent was somehow
improper, see id., at 30–31, n. 20 (characterizing scope of
“[t]he tax avoidance scheme sanctioned by the court of ap-
peals in this case”), even though it chose not to appeal the
lower court’s contrary assessment. But the longstanding
consensus in the lower courts that tenancy by the entirety
property is not subject to lien for the tax liability of one
spouse, combined with the Government’s failure to adduce
any evidence that this has led to wholesale tax fraud by mar-
ried individuals, suggests that the Court’s policy rationale
for its holding is simply unsound.
Just as I am unwilling to overturn this Court’s longstand-
ing precedent that States define and create property rights
and forms of ownership, Aquilino, 363 U. S., at 513, n. 3, I am
equally unwilling to redefine or dismiss as fictional forms of
property ownership that the State has recognized in favor
of an amorphous federal common-law definition of property.
I respectfully dissent.