An attorney with dual qualifications as a tax attorney and a Certified Public Accountant can be very helpful in avoiding disputes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and being charged heavy civil or criminal penalties.
Get the Assistance of a National Non-Filer Assistance Attorney
Our Office has built a national practice in federal income tax issues administered by the IRS, so no matter what state you are from, if you are out of compliance at the moment and have not filed several years’ worth of returns, we can assist you in coming back into compliance. It is frequently said that although the focus of an accountant is accuracy, the focus of an attorney is advocacy. Our tax lawyers’ expertise and training combine both fields. We put a premium on both accuracy and client advocacy.
Both care and accuracy are required at a high level when preparing and filing a delinquent tax return. We have the skills and knowledge to keep you compliant.
Tax Non-Filer Assistance Attorney + CPA
If you failed to file for several years of federal personal income tax returns, you are at serious risk of being criminally convicted for a number of misdemeanors. You could face overwhelming tax, civil penalties and interest which will be imposed and then aggressively pursued for collection by the IRS. Depending on your actions on top of a history of failing to file, you might even be at risk of felony federal prosecution for Spies Evasion. That said, it is ordinarily possible to dramatically improve your situation and successfully reduce any potential criminal tax consequences with our proactive and strategic defense that has never failed the lawyers at our firm.
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What Can Happen if You Don’t File Tax Returns?
Almost all U.S. adults are obligated to file a federal personal income tax return. The filing threshold for the 2018 tax year is $12,000, depending upon the taxpayer’s age and filing status. It is worth noting that this figure is subject to change from one year to the next.
Taxpayers should be warned that failure to file a returns will likely result in the imposition of serious penalties. These are explained in detail below. Additionally, failing to file a tax return pretty much guarantees that the taxpayer will be unable to get a tax refund, which is otherwise generally issued, at varying amounts, to the majority of taxpayers who earn around $50,000 or less.
Is Failing to File Taxes a Criminal Offense?
The short answer is that failure to file a single tax return could be prosecuted as a criminal offense, depending on the circumstances. The difference between a criminal failure to file and a non-criminal failure to file is the intent of the taxpayer, or whether the taxpayer acted “willfully”.
In the event that the taxpayer simply made a single honest error, he or she would still be subject to financial penalties but will not generally be at risk of criminal prosecution followed by incarceration. Nevertheless, a pattern of willful failures to file income tax returns, every count counting as a misdemeanor, can subject an individual to a maximum penalty of one year behind bars per count and/or criminal fines of up to $25,000 pursuant to 26 U.S. Code § 7203. This is the law that covers willful failure to file return, supply information, or pay tax. The maximum fine is $25,000, but this increases to $100,000 if the taxpayer is a corporation.
IRS Penalties One can Face for Not Filing Taxes
Even though the taxpayer makes an honest error in failing to file income taxes, that taxpayer still risks a collection of costly IRS civil fines and interest back to the original filing date of the return at issue. Although the penalties are civil rather than criminal, the penalty for failing to file taxes can add up quickly: up to 5% of the amount due. This is applied toward each full or even partial month the return remains unfiled. This penalty is capped at 25% of the taxpayer’s unpaid liability.
On a related and critical note, taxpayers need to be advised that while an IRS tax filing extension can grant additional time to file the return, it will never grant additional time to pay the taxes due. Thus, the taxpayer would be wise make an estimated IRS payment by the normal filing deadline (usually April 15), even if he or she has made a request for additional time to file.
I Failed to File My Taxes, What Options Are There For Me?
Unfortunately, no single answer to this question exists, as the appropriate strategy will vary from taxpayer to taxpayer, depending on the facts and circumstances surrounding the failure, or failures, to file. For certain taxpayers, it may be sufficient to just file a delinquent return. For others, like taxpayers who have multiple unfiled returns, or who owe large payments to the IRS, a more sophisticated and aggressive strategy may be required.
The role of our well-informed non-filer assistance lawyers and the CPAs on our team is to pinpoint the strategy that will best serve that particular taxpayer reenter tax compliance, while protecting him or her from any civil and criminal tax penalties to the greatest extent possible. With precision legal representation, it is usually possible to avoid criminal charges and reduce the impact of the civil penalties being sought. No matter what the situation calls for, it is in the taxpayer’s best interests to work with an experienced Tax Attorney who can assess their situation and give an explanation as to what steps will be needed to get caught up on tax filings.