Houston Prior Year Tax Preparation
Forgot To File Your Taxes? We Can Help!
Stop Living With The Burden of Not Filing Your Prior Years Taxes
The IRS may not be knocking at your door now, or maybe they have.
I Didn’t File A Tax Return In A Prior Year
The IRS may impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions on persons who fail to file returns.
If you owe tax and your return was not filed by the due date, including extensions, you may be subject to the failure to file penalty, unless you have reasonable cause for not filing, this may increase your tax bill by 25 percent. If you did not pay your tax in full by the due date for the return, not including extensions of time to file, you also may be subject to the failure to pay penalty, unless you have reasonable cause for your failure to pay. Additionally, interest is charged on taxes not paid by the due date; even if you have an extension of time to file. Interest is also charged on penalties.
There is no penalty for failure to file if you are due a refund. However, you cannot obtain a refund without filing a tax return. If you wait too long to file, you may risk losing the refund altogether. In cases where a return is not filed, the law provides most taxpayers with a three-year window of opportunity for claiming a refund.
After the expiration of the refund statute, not only does the law prevent the issuance of a refund check, it also prevents the application of any credits, including overpayments of estimated or withholding taxes, to other tax years that are underpaid. On the other hand, the statute of limitations for IRS to assess and collect any outstanding balances does not start until a return has been filed. In other words, there is no statute of limitations for assessing and collecting the tax if no return has been filed.
The IRS continues to identify people who have a filing requirement but have failed to file a return.
Why Should I File An Income Tax Return?
Taxpayers are required by law to file an income tax return for any year in which a filing requirement exists.
Important programs like federal aid to higher education require applicants to submit copies of tax returns to qualify for loans. Lending institutions also may require copies of filed returns for buying a home or financing a business.
A person’s lifetime earnings as reported to the IRS and the Social Security Administration are the basis for Social Security retirement and disability benefits as well as Medicare.
