Just turned 22, and haven’t filed taxes since 2022. I was a senior in high school going into college and took a lot of side jobs that were under the table, and resold my thrifted finds for profit… and overtime kept forgetting to do my taxes and I feel like it’s going to bite me in the butt now…. Be honest with me what do I do
Haven’t paid my taxes since 2022
byu/Valuable-Head2218 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Valuable-Head2218
11 Comments
I mean to be honest, if it was under the table, the IRS doesn’t know a damn thing about it.
Did you make any w2/1099 income? Or everything was off the books?
I’m assuming this was all under 40k a year?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong – doesn’t the IRS have bigger fish to fry?
They’re not going after you for that. Especially if it was under the table.
But you didn’t say what happened between then and now
I mean if the jobs were under the table and cash then those don’t really matter for tax purposes. As for your sales from thrifting, if they were done via a platform like ebay or grailed then you’d have to check if the payments you received exceed the trigger for the 1099-k, which for the year of 2025 was 20k, though I believe it was lower in previous years. If you’re under you should be fine.
Statistically unlikely to ever be caught or noticed by the IRS.
You have nothing to worry about if you never got a W-2 form. even if you did, but made less than like $18k, you aren’t required to file.
That said, it’s unwise to do under the table work long term, since you’re screwing yourself out of a SS check when you retire (the calculation is based on your average annual income among your best 35 years).
Just make sure you know the difference between paying your taxes and filing your taxes. You pay sales tax whenever you buy something. You pay tax on gas and oil. You pay taxes on alcohol, tobacco, weed etc. Fines, fees and registrations are a form of tax. If you own property you pay tax. If you pay for internet, tv or cell phones you pay tax.
Delete this post (eventually, you can read the replies for a while first). If you are truly worried talk to a lawyer. There is a very good chance the IRS will never notice or care that you didn’t file any previous returns. Also, per IRS rules, you may not owe any taxes depending on how much money you made. So you may be fine.
Don’t say paid under table; say 1099. File your taxes when you become an W2 employee.
You can upload all the doc documents you need off of the irs.gov and just buy them and submit them. submit them for now and within time you can ask for a payment schedule and work out a payment plan. it’s no big deal. they’re not going to put you in jail
Technically knowing you haven’t done your taxes and deliberately not doing them is tax evasion. It’s a serious crime.
Now, the IRS only has finite resources and they’re not going to catch everyone who evades taxes (especially for those who make under the table money), so they probably won’t go after you. But it’s more than a non-zero chance.