common or uncommon? relatively uncommon compared to the number of homes out there, but it does happen quite a bit. the analysis we did looks at over 300,000 of these tax liens, many in florida and other areas that had been hard hit. what s the bank s incentive to buy somebody s tax debt and try to collect it and why isn t is irs or local municipality responsible? with the banks and hedge funds are investing is to make a quick return. they buy the debt and are able to tack on interest rates as high as 18% and numerous other fees. as far as the taxes, they pay the taxes on these earnings. if you were to look at the people that are doing this, the hedge funds doing this that are basically raising money to buy people s tax debts and either jacking interest on those,