§ 2101.Notices and certificates; place of filing

Subdivision (a) states the general rule: every notice of lien, certificate, or other notice affecting a federal tax lien or another federal lien covered by this title has to be filed in accordance with this title's venue rules, not wherever a filer might otherwise choose. The rest of the section fills in exactly where that is, splitting the analysis between real property and personal property.

Real property is the less complicated case. A lien on real property for an obligation owed the United States, along with any certificate or notice affecting that lien, gets filed for record with the recorder of the county where the property sits, the same office that handles deeds and mortgages on that land.

Personal property splits four ways depending on who owns the interest the lien reaches. If that person is a corporation, an LLC, or a partnership with its principal executive office in California, or a trust not otherwise covered, or a decedent's estate, the notice goes to the Secretary of State. Everyone else, meaning individuals in the ordinary case, gets filed with the recorder of the county where that person lives when the notice is filed. The distinction tracks how the Commercial Code treats filings against business entities generally, centralizing them in one statewide office instead of scattering them across counties.