Your 2016 tax refund is actually available until july 15 2020.
What if i haven t filed taxes in years.
If your return wasn t filed by the due date including extensions of time to file.
It s only after you file your taxes that the irs has a 10 year time limit to collect monies owed.
Before april 15 2020 you will receive tax refunds for the years 2016 2017 2018 and 2019 if you are entitled to them.
There s no penalty for filing your taxes late if the irs owes you money.
What if you haven t filed taxes for years.
Here s what you need to know and do if you haven t filed.
The irs usually doesn t go after nonfilers after six years unless the irs begins its investigation before the six years elapsed and you owe a large amount of taxes.
If you owed taxes for the years you haven t filed the irs has not forgotten.
Filing six years 2014 to 2019 to get into full compliance or four years 2016 to 2019 to just focus on available refunds.
Send us a message but doing so does not mean that we are your lawyers until we have confirmed so in writing.
This penalty is usually 5 of the unpaid taxes.
If you owe 5 000 or more in taxes to the cra contact our tax lawyers for help today.
But if you filed your tax return 60 days after the due date or the extended due date then you might have a bigger penalty.
As we have previously recommended if you haven t filed taxes in a long time you should consider two paths.
If you don t file and pay taxes the irs has no time limit on collecting taxes penalties and interest for each year you did not file.
For each return that is more than 60 days past its due date they will assess a 135 minimum failure to file penalty.
Your penalty will now be the smaller of 135 or 100 of your total tax debt.
The penalty charge will not exceed 25 of your total taxes owed.
But if you owe them money things can get very ugly very fast.
Tax not paid in full by the original due date of the return regardless of extensions of time to file may also result in the failure to pay penalty.
After april 15 2020 you will lose the 2016 refund as the statute of limitations prevents refunds after three years.
The failure to file penalty also known as the delinquency penalty runs at a severe rate of 5 up to a maximum rate of 25 per month or partial month of lateness.
You may be subject to the failure to file penalty unless you have reasonable cause for your failure to file timely.