what happens if you don't file income tax for yrs and then decide to file?
87411
you pay money or get a return.\n(don't worry, the IRS doesn't have their sh*t togther enough to notice that you have not filed for years.)
99701
as many years as they can get away with it. The IRS will find you and put you in jail if you do not pay your taxes.\n\nEveryone has to file once a year.
1031441
If you don't pay the back taxes they will have to . Or get prove that all taxes are paid then take them to small claims court
817712
Wayne Z is right that statute of limitations has expired for 02, and you can still file for 03, but wrong about them paying you interest.  You did not file a timely return (April 15th without extension, or October 15th w/extensions), therefore, the IRS does not owe you any interest.
480785
It depends on how you file.
282271
You will not owe a penalty for not filing, but there is a statute of limitation that limits your time frame to receive a refund - check the website below for correct time frame.
450626
No penalty.  The government only cares about late tax returns if you owe them money.  If they owe you money, they're very gratefull for the interest free loan.  Expect to get your refund later than everyone else who filed their returns on time (maybe an extra week).
35877
You'll likely be ordered to repay any benefits you illegally collected.  I think as long as you do that, you won't be in worse trouble.  However, if you fail to do that, I'm pretty sure there are criminal penalties you could suffer.
377069
Since the government owes you and you dont have income then you can file at any time. you can go back as long as you need to\n\nIt is in your interest to file early however because you may qualify for refunds.\n\nufile on the web or ufile packages in stores will do it
161090
It depends on if you had to file or not. I'm fairly sure if you make over $7000 or so you have to file as a single person. Then, if you still owed tax with the filing that you didn't do, then there could be legal consequences; however, if you overpaid on your taxes (by employer withholdings)then you would have no "trouble" buy you have been screwing yourself out of some $$$. In either case, you can post-file all years in question with varying forms from http://www.irs.gov (great site by the way) and find out if you did owe or were owed $$$. Now, if you owed them, they will charge you penalties and interest for the back payments not to exceed a certain amount annually (I forget what the max is, but I'm sure you can look it up on their site easy enough). BUT, if they owed you a return for those years, then you can still file for those years and they will pay you back your refund with interest (minimal interest, and you will have to claim that interest as income on next years taxes too). All the answers should be easily found at the IRS web.\n\nGood Luck!
1089769
Why did you file in the first place? \n\nIf you are 57 and no money for retirement, you are starting really late.  Best to save as much as possible, put it in a high earning account, not the stock market, you don't have enough time to invest or the ability.
923527
You are required to file a return if you have income, whether you owe taxes or no.  The Government wants you to report income and THEY will decide if you owe taxes.  A tax return is not just a request for a "return", you report earnings on tax return and figure amount owed.  I'd plead ignorance and get in touch with IRS.at the nearest office.
50422
Do you mean that if you didn't not pay your fed tax throughout the year?   \nIf you make a taxable wage at the end of the year, then you will have to pay the taxes you owe.
285862
Your financial institution (stockbroker, for example) is required to report those transactions to the IRS. There is a bit of processing time involved, but the IRS would probably find out you failed to report income within two or three years (probably faster nowadays--I can only hope they've upgraded their computer system since I worked there). \n\nYou would receive a long letter from the IRS when the paperwork caught up. Your consequences could include some combination of negative credit reports, interest charges, failure to pay penalty, jail time, and seizure of your property, depending upon the amount of taxes you owe and how quickly and politely you cooperate and pay up. \n\nThey don't have to do it often, but I understand IRS raids are considered the best-run raids in federal law enforcement.
1101750
You're not in trouble, per se, because you have 3 years to file a return in order to get a refund (if due).  But what happens when you don't file a return is that IRS files a Substitute 1040 for you, and then they add penalties and interest to it, and the interest is accumulative, so you're much better off filing it now to eliminate owing them any more than you may already owe.  If you owe and can't pay, they will work out a payment plan with you, and you should take their offer, because the interest they charge is much less than paying it with a credit card.  And you don't need to hire someone to file the return for you; just go to irs.gov, find the form, fill it out and mail it in.
31142
You do not need an attorney.  But do go to a cpa.  Not everyone is required to file.  If the IRS has not contacted you about this then you most likely get a notice from them regarding interest and penalties.   The penalties are based upon the amount owed and time frame.  A CPA will work to push the income to later years so that the penalties and interest will be lower.\n\nA CPA may even be able to get the penalties waive, but not interest.  THis alone is worth it 10 times over.
740995
You may need to ask your question with some additional details.\n\nI assuming here, but it appears that you failed to files returns on which you were due a refund.  You most likely received a demand for return notice within the first 18 months.  You filed a return well after three years from the original or extended due date.  And you were denied your refund as a result of statute.  You requested an administrative appeal based on their decision. They are asking you for the grounds of your appeal.\n\nIf so, here is what happened.  The statute of limitations runs for three years from the date of the filing of the return.  If you don't file a return, the statute never stops running, and the IRS can come after you to prepare a return at any time.\n\nHowever, if the IRS has money due to you, and you do not request it back within three years of the original due date, or extended due date, they are not permitted to continue to hold your money ad infinitum.  No government agency is permitted to hold your money if they cannot find you and follow set proceedures in order to reach you.\n\nAs the IRS cannot hold your money after the time allowed by statute, they submit the money to the deparment of unclaimed property.  The Federal government and every State has a department of unclaimed property, which makes the money available for government use until you file sufficient claims.\n\nIf my summary is close to correct, and the IRS followed ALL required proceedures in order to notify you of their intent to submit your property, then you have no grounds for administrative appeal, and instead need to focus you efforts on the department of unclaimed property.  If the IRS failed to follow ALL required proceedures, then that is the grounds for your appeal.  And you will need to specify which proceedures were not followed under statute.