Home |IRS Tax Return | Can someone advise me on how to address unfiled taxes for the past 20 years, particularly the first 10 years when I was self-employed and had limited recordkeeping?

Can someone advise me on how to address unfiled taxes for the past 20 years, particularly the first 10 years when I was self-employed and had limited recordkeeping?

Robert James, 20+ years of experience in IRS matters
Answered on October 07,2023

The IRS only requires taxpayers to file the last six years (to the extent a filing was required) in order for them to be considered compliant.

You most likely need not go back all 20 years and can file 2017-2022 to get into compliance.

Your wage and income transacripts should be available. The hardest part will be pulling bank records and doing bookkeeping to determine what your expenses were for the years you were self employed.

Also, even if you don’t have a filing requirement, it would still make sense — for the last three years of returns — to file if you are due a refund (and don’t forget the refundable Recovery Rebate Credit for 2020 and 2021 for unreceived stimulus [if you’re eligible]).

So the typical filing strategy in this case is to file the last six years as well as any years the IRS filed an SFR for since it’s likely your liability for the year (and therefore the penalties and interest as well) is likely overstated on the SFR.

You can call the IRS to learn which years you have a balance / the IRS filed SFRs for.

Also, you can request unmasked wage and income transcripts from the IRS for up to the last 10 years; this document shows you all the tax documents that were issued to you each year.

Create an account on IRS.gov and pull your transcripts as far back as possible. It would really be better to hire a local EA or CPA to assist you in getting caught up on prior years. They know what they’re doing and have extensive experience with getting non-filers back in compliance.

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