From: Dallas, TX

Dear TaxMama,

I can not even explain how it happened, or all the reasons why...mostly fear.

We have been married 21 years and never filed a tax return. Taxes were withheld from our checks. We were just a struggling family w/three kids> And we just never did the tax returns.

Now i don't know what to do.

I would just like to get out from under this constant fear.

Please help.

Thanks

Janice

 

OK Janice,

Take a deeeeep breath.

It's going to be all right.

The way it sounds, you and your husband always had jobs, not a business. You always had money taken out of your paychecks to cover taxes.

You have a bunch of kids so you're entitled to lots of exemptions and child care credits and child tax credits. And if your income was low enough (you say you've been struggling), you might even be entitled to the Earned Income Credit.

So. odds are, you won't owe any taxes. Or if you do, they won't be much.

The really bad news I'm going to give you is - you probably had refunds coming to you during all those years. That would have been money you could use to live on. You've thrown that away.

You can't collect any refunds that are more than 3 years old.

So, start preparing and filing your tax returns. Start with 2004 and work backwards. Get 2003 and 2002 filed right away.

You've already lost all refunds from 2001 backwards.

You'll be fine.

Now do some shopping around for a tax professional who can help you prepare all those years without charging you a fortune. Expect to pay between $100 and $350 for each year, depending on how complex the returns are.

And please, stop doing this. You're losing sleep over it and you're throwing money away. Our government wastes enough of it. We are responsible to not let them have more than they absolutely must have. Don't you think?