Not filed taxes since 2012.. never owed but forgot one year and have been scared to go. And now I’m in a deeper hole making it 5 years later?
Will I owe? Will I get in trouble? Really need advice trying to become the responsible adult but really scared. Don’t know what to expect
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Answers & Comments
if all those years you were not required to file due to insufficient income that is not a problem
if you now have enough income to report, file as required
No way to know if you owe until you do the returns.
No. You don't owe a penalty for filing federal taxes late for a year when you don't owe. However, if you are over 3 years late, then you don't get whatever refund you might have gotten if you had filed sooner.
If your income has been W-2 jobs, the IRS gets copies and would have contacted you if you owed them money. They might owe YOU money but if you don't file, you won't get it. Go ahead and file. You might be asked to verify your identity since you've been out of the system so long, but nothing bad will happen. There's nothing to be scared of. Just file now for 2017. You could go bzack and file for 2014-2016 and get any money that was owed to you. It's too late for 2013.
Each year that you did not file, the IRS used W2, 1099, etc forms from your employers and banks, to file a substitute tax return for you. They assume the worst-case scenario (no dependents, no deductions, etc) for this process return.
If that substitute return shows that you owe them money, they would send you a letter telling you to pay your taxes (plus penalties and interest for being late).
If the substitute return shows that they owe you a refund, then they keep your money and leave you alone.
So the fact that you haven't received any letters from the IRS means one of two things. Either you never owed money, or you moved and their letters demanding payment aren't reaching you because they don't have your current address.
Either way, the best thing you can do is go file the returns. If you do owe and the letters haven't' reached you, then your debt is only getting larger from interest and penalties. The best thing you can do is file the original return and set up a payment plan to pay the debt.
But the more likely scenario is that you never owed any tax. You've lost the right to claim any refunds older than 3 years, but you can still claim the 3 most recent years. This is based on original filing deadline. What that means is that any refunds from 2013 and earlier are gone forever. For 2014 the original deadline was 4/15/2015, which means the drop dead date to claim a refund is 4/15/2018.
In any case, failure to file a tax return is considered simple negligence, not a criminal offense, so you aren't facing any legal consequences. If you have an overdue tax bill, then you'll have to pay the bill plus some penalties and interest the same as you would with any other overdue bill, but its not going to go on your criminal record or land you in jail or anything like that.
Bite the bullet and deal with it...asap.
If you don't owe, you're not in trouble but you've lost any refunds older than 3 yrs. File all the returns and if you do owe, they will work out a payment plan with you. Since they haven't contacted you yet, you probably don't owe. They would have filed the oldest returns for you based on the information they had. If you owed, they would have sent you a bill, but they don't contact you at all if you had a refund coming!
There is a chance they owe you money. Talk to an accountant.
By your not filing, the IRS kept all of your withheld income. The IRS is ok with that. Get back into the system and rest your mind.
Best just to bite the bullet, and come forward. It isn't getting any better by neglecting it. Maybe it won't be as bad as you fear.