As title says, past two years I didn’t submit my taxes- Was very emotionally overwhelmed, essentially had a sibling who was dying, it was incredibly stressful and I was in a grad program…managed to complete the grad program and be there for family, but just could handle getting it done for some reason(not knowing what i was supposed to do with grad loans and stuff probably was a piece). Now, I’m trying to get it together especially before this next years are due. Any advice, anyone been in a situation like this before? Am I totally fucked? I also pulled money out of a retirement account to pay bills, and think I ended up paying taxes 2x on it- again, any advice? Anyone know how to go about trying to recover from a screw up like this?
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You’re not fucked, just do them this year and catch up. Lots of places have free tax planning help. If you overpaid on taxes previously you might even get some back
Do you think the free tax help prep places are running this early in the season?
Idk but only one way to find out, start googling and calling around your area. You’re definitely not the first person to be in this situation. Take heart. Just searching “I haven’t filed my taxes in 2 years America” turns up all kinds of resources. The important thing is not to just procrastinate and avoid the issue. The irs won’t forget and it will get worse. It’s better to do these things on time but 2 years is not that much of a delay, especially since it sounds like you weren’t making much at the time anyway. Don’t wait until April, start figuring it out now
the IRS could just send you a bill but they make you jump through these hoops so Intuit can sell tax software
If you are in usa and you overpaid on with-holding, then you are fine. You file previous year to get your refunds. If you had owed, you will pay a penalty. Pay them ASAP, the penalty could accrue interest.
As @[email protected] said, you are not totally fucked. There will be fines involved. If you owed money, interest on it will have accrued. If they owe you money, you might still end up in the back after fines.
If you don’t file your taxes for long enough, eventually an investigator will come ring your doorbell, and urge you to file them.
is there a chance you would have received a refund? if you owed money, i’d expect them to have already tried to contact you already
Very confident I would have received refund, grad student living on debt and pretty close to poverty line yearly income because only part time jobs. I’m assuming since I was late, that refund money is just gone
If you are late by 3 years the money is gone
Its not a big deal if you’re behind they’ll put you on a payment plan, you only get in trouble for avoiding paying for years intentionally…its an issue for small business owners and celebrities but not really wage workers.
I didn’t do my taxes for like 5 years or something. No joke.
You might think it has to do with something in my username, but honestly it was just that I couldn’t be bothered to do them. Then I just filed them all together last year and I was fine. Don’t stress about it.
It’s not that big of a deal honestly. Iirc below a certain income level you don’t even have to file.
Why doesn’t everyone just not do their taxes?
A problem for a lot of direct action is that it requires people to make a lot of personal sacrifice for uncertain gain
but not doing your taxes is literally just the path of least resistance, couldn’t this be an effective protest?
IF it were organized like a tenant rent strike, sure. But if you do it on your own… when the tax man goes to your boss and your bank and says to them, “Give me all of this person’s money”, you will be shit out of luck.
a lot of w-2 (not independent contractors) workers, my guess would be most, already overpay their taxes through the withholding scheme where the employer holds back some portion of wages and submits it to the government on the workers’ behalf. low income wage workers file their taxes to get something back, usually from various credit programs like earned income or children/dependents etc.
i had an ex that thought they were sticking it to the man by not “doing” their taxes for like 6 years, when all they really did was miss out on like a few grand in refunds over the years.
