How to catch up on 6 years of unfiled back taxes
Falling behind on taxes for years leaves people overwhelmed and unsure of where to start reconstructing their records from odd jobs and online income. This paralyzing backlog stops them from resolving past debts and creates extreme anxiety about potential penalties.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1hiring a CPA, or EA, to assist with filing back returns
- 2saving a percentage of earnings on the side to pay potential back taxes, interest, and penalties
- 3rescinding citizenship
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Do I also need to file Form 990-N for 2023 and 2024, or is one filing enough to stop us from losing nonprofit status?”source ↗
“This is an extreme headache and a big reconstruction issue, sigh..”source ↗
“I haven't reported or filed my taxes for almost 6 years or so, and partially the reason is because I started making money through very odd jobs online and eventually found a niche related to teaching online.”source ↗
“How screwed am I for not reporting that long? I really am worried because I don't even know where to start.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3Can I get a loan with unfiled tax returns?
- 2How to stop chasing contractor W-9 forms before payment
- 2What to do when an old accountant withholds tax documents and changes bills
- 15How to handle expense reports without being good at math
- 23How to clean up months of messy client expense records
- 4Why do books never balance late at night?