Unfiled Tax Returns

Behind on Filing? You’re Not Alone!

The version I hear most often goes something like this.

Somebody misses one year. Not on purpose. There was a divorce, or a parent died, or a business went sideways, or a health scare ate up eight months of the calendar. April came and went, and filing a tax return was about fortieth on the list of things that mattered that spring.

Then the next April shows up. Now it’s two returns instead of one, and the first one is going to look bad, so it gets put off again. The year after that it’s three. By the time a notice arrives from the IRS with a number printed on it, we’re five or six years in, and the whole thing has gotten so big in someone’s head that they can’t look at it straight.

That’s almost always how it happens. It’s rarely somebody who decided not to pay taxes. It’s somebody who had a hard year and then got stuck, and every month of silence made the next month harder.

If that’s you, I’m not going to lecture you. I’ve been doing this for more than twenty years, and people who are behind on filing are a big part of who walks through my door. You are not the worst case I’ve seen this month. You’re probably not the worst case I’ve seen this week.

Here is the part people don’t expect: unfiled returns are one of the most fixable problems in my line of work.

We start by pulling your IRS transcripts, which show what the IRS already has on file for you. Wage records, 1099s, what’s been filed, what hasn’t, what they think you owe. Most people are carrying around a worst-case number in their head that turns out to be nothing like the real one. Sometimes the real number is smaller. Sometimes there are years where you were owed a refund. Either way, you stop guessing.

How we help

From there, this is the work we take off your plate:

  • Read your transcripts and tell you in plain English how many years need to be filed and what the IRS is looking at
  • Help you rebuild the records you no longer have, so a missing shoebox of receipts doesn’t stop the process
  • Prepare and file every back return, correctly, with the deductions and credits you’re entitled to claim
  • Handle the IRS directly. As an Enrolled Agent I’m authorized to represent you in any matter before the IRS, which means the calls, the letters, and the meetings come to me instead of you
  • Work out what happens to the balance. A payment plan, a settlement offer, or hardship status, depending on what your actual numbers support
  • Request penalty relief where you qualify for it

Most of that happens without you in the room.

What I will tell you is that waiting makes it worse in a specific way. When you don’t file, the IRS can eventually prepare a return for you based only on the income reported under your Social Security number. No deductions you’d qualify for, no dependents, none of your business expenses. That version of your tax year is almost always more expensive than the one you would have filed yourself. Filing puts you back in control of the number.

You don’t have to have your records organized before you call. You don’t need to know how many years it’s been. Most people who call me can’t remember the last year they filed, and that’s fine, because the transcripts will tell us.

Fill out your information below and we’ll set up a time to talk. One conversation, no cost, and you’ll leave it knowing what you’re dealing with instead of wondering.

Contact us for a FREE Consultation!