As the header says , me and my husband haven’t filed taxes since 2021 and we don’t know what to do , I am ashamed that we haven’t filed and were irresponsible for so long , I know we owe money so I’d have to look into getting a payment plan with the IRS .. any advice on how to fix this issue?
Posted by SecretDonut1282
3 Comments
contact a tax professional or the irs directly, explain your situation honestly. they can guide you on how to file past returns and set up a payment plan. better to address it sooner than later.
You’d be surprised as to how many people stopped filing after 2020. Depression, businesses going under. A lot has happened and some people never got back on track. You go to a CPA get everything prepared and hire a tax attorney to file them for you. They will deal with IRS and their response.
It’s really not that uncommon to get behind on taxes, and I don’t think you should be ashamed. There are people who can help you!
First you prepare the tax returns, then you file them, then you set up a payment plan with IRS and your state if necessary. It might not be that simple depending on whether you have all your tax documents or not, and depending on how complicated your situation is.
If you don’t have all your W-2s etc for these years, you can get Wage and Income transcripts from IRS. You can get redacted versions from your online accounts, or you can call and make an appointment at your local IRS office whenever the government shutdown ends.
These transcripts won’t have any state income tax withholding, and they won’t have any health insurance coverage information, so you might have to do more work to get those documents.
Next is filing the returns – you can use FreeTaxUSA to prepare them yourself, or hire a CPA or Enrolled Agent, or you can go to a free tax preparation program when they open next year. Most of the free tax preparation programs operate Feb 1 through April 15, and they should be able to help you get 2022 – 2025 filed. Some programs have income limits, and there are some IRS restrictions on types of income / credits etc with the free tax programs, but a lot of people will qualify for help.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-for-qualifying-taxpayers
https://www.getyourrefund.org/en
If you owe there’s no requirement to pay when you file, but you should pay what you can afford to. It might make more sense to pay what you can to later years, because older years will be close to maxing out penalties. Also if you owe both IRS and state it might make sense to pay as much towards the state tax balance since they can be more difficult to deal with than IRS.
The next step is the same no matter how you do your taxes – you wait for the balance due notices. If you owe, you’ll be able to set up a payment plan with IRS but only after all the tax returns have been processed. You can get up to ten years to pay, but the faster your pay off what you owe the less you pay overall.
Since you have to file 2022 on paper, that year is going to take the longest to process. Make sure you keep copies of all the tax returns, because you may need to fax copies of unprocessed tax returns to IRS collections to get a payment plan established.
You may discover that you need to change your withholding and/or make estimated tax payments – do that BEFORE you set up a payment plan. The goal is to stay on top of your current tax obligations and pay off the pay for tax debt as quickly as you can without going further into debt.
You may find that you cannot afford to pay your basic living expenses as well as current tax obligation and pay on the past due tax debt; there are other payment options with IRS you may need to look at like a Partial payment installment agreement or an Offer in Compromise. Just remember that any payment plan or payment arrangement comes with the expectation that you will stay on top of filing returns and paying your taxes.
https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/get-help/paying-taxes/
Finally, you may qualify for penalty relief for 2022 if you had a good history from 2019 – 2021. First you need to file the returns and either pay what you owe or set up a payment plan.
https://www.irs.gov/payments/administrative-penalty-relief