My friend has not filed a tax return for over 10 years. How should she approach her state and the IRS if she now wants to file and rectify the situation? Will she be penalized?

Have her gather all her tax info up... i.e. W-2's, 1099's, etc for those unfiled 10 years and then have your friend go to a tax preparer as the older forms are not readily available and they will be able to help her recreate the forms using the appropriate schedules. In some cases if your friend had money coming to her via a tax refund, then no, no penalities will be assessed. But if she owed them money, then possibly penalties will be assessed against her.

She as noted will just take all her info to a tax perparer and have them do her taxes and file them.
Remember depending on her income, if she is under the limit there is no requirement to file.

If she has money coming back there should be no problem, if she owes money they will work out a payment plan with her.

Further note: ANY refund (state or federal) from 2003 or earlier has, by law, been forfeited.

However, your friend STILL has to file the earlier tax returns if she had a legal requirement to file, as the IRS will hold her 2004 through 2006 tax refunds until those returns are filed.

Finally, she should expect to pay the tax preparer a fee in the $1,000 range to prepare these ten years worth of returns.

The lesson learned here is don't mess with Mother IRS.

Only too true!

I have not filed taxes in over 10 years.. I have had the IRS send me nasty letters multiple times to which I send a letter asking 5 questions. They fail to answer any of the questions.. question one is what law requires me to file tax returns.. question 2. what law requires me to pay a tax based on my income. Question 3. please produce your power of authority over me as a private corporation.. the IRS is a private corp by the way and not a Govt. entity.. you will find them in the white pages of the phone book, not the blue federal organizations page.. you will have to find out questions 4 and 5 for yourself.

To Original Poster:

Do NOT follow AreaMike's advice!! Protesters such as him will eventually be dealt with rather severely by the IRS; it only a matter of time.

As for your friend, it is likely, if he/she worked in a W-2 job, that enough money was withheld to cover his tax liabilites and his/her failing to file only denied him/her tax refunds.

To get caught up, he/she must file for tax year 2004 to 2010. He/she can recover refunds for 2008, 2009 and 2010, but for 2007 and earlier, the refunds have been forfeited. This applies to the state tax returns as well.

If your friend needs professional help, have him email me at [email protected].