Unfiled tax returns; I get questions about unfiled tax returns all the time. It’s not uncommon for our client to come in and they have unfiled tax return for the past ten or fifteen years. The longest that I can ever remember is a gentleman who came in and he hadn’t filed since before I was born, and let me tell you, that was quite while ago. Typically, what we have clients do who haven’t filed returns in quite some time is we do file Freedom of Information Act request and we get their transcript information from the Government.
We ask for just the past six years because the IRS has an informal policy that if they’re not interested in criminally prosecuting you for the crime of failure to file a return, they’re going to let you get away with filing just the past six years. So that’s the good news.
Do you have unfiled tax returns with the IRS? If so it might make you feel better knowing that a lot of tax payers are in the very same boat as you are. After reading the contents on this page give Darrin T. Mish, an IRS attorney, a call at 888-438-6474 to find out what your next steps should be.
Actually, it’s not a crime not to pay your taxes, and I know it’s hard to believe but it’s actually not a crime not to pay your taxes. It’s a crime not to file your tax returns and we don’t want to have a crime hanging out there, so we go ahead and get your last six years prepared and filed for you. It’s also a crime to file fraudulent returns, so you never want to do that.
But the good news is that the IRS is only going to require that you file the last six years absent extraordinary circumstances. So I encourage you to give us a call at (888) 438-6474.