The IRS filed a $1,571,452 federal tax lien against Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley in Davidson County, Tennessee, on Aug. 19, 2026, putting a new financial claim on the couple more than a year after their pardons. The lien ties the debt to unpaid assessments for 2021 and 2022, even though Donald Trump cleared their prison sentences in May 2025.
For readers wondering why the Todd and Julie Chrisley tax lien matters now, the answer is simple: pardons ended the criminal penalties, but they did not wipe out a separate tax bill. The lien lists $142,410.72 for 2021 and $1,429,041.89 for 2022, with the assessments dated Dec. 5, 2022, and Dec. 11, 2023, showing the debt had already been on the books before the lien was filed.
Chrisley and his wife were convicted in June 2022 of conspiring to defraud banks and evade federal taxes. He received a 12-year prison sentence and she received a seven-year sentence in November 2022. He served time at a federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, while she was held at a federal correctional institution in Tallahassee before both were released in May 2025 after the pardons.
The unpaid taxes remained separate from that criminal case. A federal tax lien is a legal claim against property and other assets, which can affect how money is handled on paper even when the criminal case is over. The filing does not explain how the IRS plans to collect, but it makes clear the government still considers the couple to owe the money.
That is the part that keeps the matter alive for Savannah, who said on her Unlocked podcast in October 2023, while her parents were still incarcerated, that her dad taught a financial class and called it ironic. She also said, “Which, how ironic?” The couple has since returned to public life and now hosts Chrisley Confessions 2.0, but the lien shows the tax fight has not gone away with the pardon.
The practical question now is not whether the criminal case is over. It is whether the IRS will move beyond the filing and how the lien will shape the couple’s finances, records and public filings going forward.
