I haven't filed in years. Where do I start?
Unfiled years do not go away on their own. The IRS can prepare a return for you from the information it has, and until you file, there is no deadline on assessing tax for that year. Filing correct returns is usually where resolving everything else begins.
Or book a 30-minute call about your unfiled years and what to do next.
Talk to us about your IRS problemThis first phase is a fixed fee, set before work begins. Nothing in it obligates you to the next phase.
An unfiled year stays open.
The law gives the IRS its own way to establish a return when you do not file, and no time limit while you don't.
A return prepared for you
When a required return is not filed, the law directs the IRS to make one from its own knowledge and the information it can obtain, and that return is prima facie good and sufficient for all legal purposes. Because it is built from what the IRS has, it may not reflect deductions, credits or expenses you could claim.
Law · IRC §6020(b)No deadline while unfiled
If no return is filed, tax for that year can be assessed at any time. A return the IRS prepares for you does not start that clock.
Law · IRC §6501(c)(3) and (b)(3)A notice of deficiency
For income tax, the IRS assesses tax it determines this way through a notice of deficiency. You then have 90 days to petition the Tax Court (150 days if the notice is addressed to you outside the United States).
Law · IRC §6212 and §6213(a)Then collection
Once tax is assessed and unpaid, the usual collection sequence follows: notices, then a lien and levies.
Law · IRC §6321, §6331Filing late and paying late are separate.
Both penalties are figured on tax still unpaid, and neither applies if the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect.
Failure to file
5 percent of the unpaid tax for each month or part of a month the return is late, up to 25 percent. It is figured on the tax due after timely payments and credits such as withholding. For an income tax return more than 60 days late, a minimum penalty applies, adjusted for inflation each year.
Law · IRC §6651(a)(1), (b)(1), (j)Failure to pay
0.5 percent a month of the unpaid tax, up to 25 percent, rising to 1 percent a month beginning 10 days after the IRS's notice of intent to levy. For months when both penalties apply, the failure-to-file penalty is reduced by the failure-to-pay penalty.
Law · IRC §6651(a)(2), (c)(1), (d)When the IRS prepares the return
A return the IRS prepares is disregarded for the failure-to-file penalty, but treated as your return for the failure-to-pay penalty, so that penalty runs on the tax it shows.
Law · IRC §6651(g)Interest
Interest runs on unpaid tax from the original due date until it is paid.
Law · IRC §6601(a)Refunds have a deadline.
A refund on a late original return is limited to tax paid within the three years before you file it, plus any extension. Withholding and estimated payments are treated as paid on the original due date.
In practice, that generally means you have three years from the original due date to file and claim a refund of withholding or estimated payments. After that, those refunds are generally lost, even though the return can still be filed.Law · IRC §6511(a), (b)(2)(A); §6513(a), (b)
Why filing comes first.
Most ways of resolving a balance depend on being current with filing. For example, one of the conditions for a guaranteed installment agreement is that you have not failed to file an income tax return in any of the preceding five years.Law · IRC §6159(c)(2)
To be eligible for an offer in compromise, the IRS requires that you have filed all required tax returns and made required estimated payments.IRS practice · IRS offer in compromise eligibility
How many years to file, and in what order, is a judgment made from your IRS record: which years the IRS has already prepared, which carry balances, and which may still hold refunds. Our first look at a case often concludes that the returns must be filed before anything else can be resolved.Bridge's view · practitioner judgment
We take it from here.
- We take controlOnce you sign the authorization, we deal with the IRS for you. Send us any IRS letter you receive.
- Exactly where you standWhich years are unfiled, which the IRS has prepared for you, and what income it has on record for each.
- Your deadlines, risks and leverageIncluding any notice of deficiency deadlines and refunds that are still recoverable.
- Your Resolution RoadmapIn writing: which returns to file, in what order, and the paths open for any balance that results.