I’m a bit embarrassed, but I’ve been here for 3 years and just found out, via this sub, about the need to file U.S. taxes even though I don’t owe anything, as well as submit an fbar (which I didn’t know about). Regarding the tax reports, I’m wondering if there’s a straightforward way to file for years I missed (2021, 2022).
I’m kinda worried because next year I need to renew my passport and I’m worried not having filed taxes will prevent that from happening. Can someone out there help me out?
4 comments
If you are a company employee it’s actually pretty simple to catch up on your own, just look up the forms for IRS streamlined compliance procedures and click on the IRS link, ignore the tax filing companies with all their scary threats. You just need to do the back tax forms and an additional one saying oops, I didn’t realize, sorry, if I recall correctly.
If you are self employed or have lots of stocks or something it might be more complicated, but as a regular company employee I did mine pretty easily.
If you don’t owe anything, there’s no penalty/-ies.
In reality, same for the FBAR. Yes, of course you should have done it, and should do them from now on, but the dept of treasury gets late ones all the time, and they don’t pursue folks on this end of the scale (the goal for them is to be able to turn the screws on someone like paul manafort).
Do the FBAR yourself (if you need to). Accountants and online tax prep companies will charge you a stupid amount of money for something that will take you a few minutes to do on your own.
Easiest way is to use popular software like Turbotax or HR block. Previous years are not accepted through e filing if you file by yourself, whether for state or federal. This means you need to print out hard copies, sign off and mail them.