Can I Still File Past Year Taxes?

How many times have you just forgotten to do something on your TO DO list?

With all our responsibilities, it’s easy to lose track of some of them. Perhaps you didn’t write down that doctor’s appointment. Maybe you were an hour late to a dance recital. You could have even forgotten to pay past year taxes. The last one is more common than you think–and is also the most detrimental the longer you wait.

Fortunately, you can still file past year taxes. And even better, you’re probably still eligible for a refund! In fact, most people who haven’t paid their old taxes are due a refund. Here’s why:

 

Why didn’t you file?

For some of us, forgetting to file past year taxes is just a slip of the mind. It might have been that we forgot to file an extension or were out of the country or a dozen of other viable reasons. For more people, though, not filing those past tax returns is part of a larger issue, because many of us are poorly educated about taxes.

A lot of people aren’t aware that even if you have no job, or occasional jobs, or were laid off, you should still file your past year taxes. They–logically–think that making as little money as they did, it’s not worth the time and energy it would take to fill out the paperwork.

What does this mean for you?

What isn’t realized is that this means the government owes you. In fact, if you’re in one of the lower income brackets the government probably owes you a lot of money. Money that is owed to you because you never filed your past year taxes. And so, all those refunds have accumulated, often into a good chunk of money. By not filing past year taxes, all you’re doing is denying yourself money owed to you. And since you’re only eligible for that refund for three years, the sooner you file, the better.

Don’t grow your debt.

Of course, not all of us will get a refund when we file past year taxes, but studies show that most of people will. And even if you owe money, by waiting to file, you keep increasing your debt. Each day of unpaid taxes is a day of interest being accumulated. But when you file those back taxes, you instantly put a stop to that interest. Even if it seems counter-intuitive, paying off tax debt actually saved you money.

So don’t delay–file today!

Photo via h.koppdelaney on Flickr.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 at 8:50 pm and is filed under Taxes for Prior Years. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.