Step 1: Get Your IRS Account
Go to:
Create an account and look for:
- Tax return transcripts
- Wage & income transcripts
- Account transcripts
These will tell you:
- Which returns the IRS received
- Which years are missing
- W-2s
- 1099s
- Other income reported to the IRS
Step 2: Determine the Missing Years
Federal filing status from transcripts
| Year | IRS Status | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Filed, $0 balance, refund issued | Done |
| 2020 | Filed, $0 balance, refund issued | Done |
| 2021 | No return filed | File |
| 2022 | No return filed | File |
| 2023 | No return filed, extension recorded | File |
| 2024 | No return filed | File |
2019 and 2020 are already resolved federally. The missing federal returns are 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. The account transcripts for 2021–2024 all show “RETURN NOT PRESENT FOR THIS ACCOUNT” / “No tax return filed.”
Important income items
2021 includes unemployment, rent income, small W-2s, and a small retirement distribution.
2022 includes W-2 income from Giant Eagle, Home Depot, and ServiceLink, plus rent income and mortgage interest records.
2023 includes W-2s, unemployment, and a retirement distribution.
2024 includes W-2 income plus a 1099-NEC for $20,982, which is the first obvious self-employment filing issue.
The plan is much simpler than it looked when we started.
What we now know
| Year | Status |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Filed |
| 2020 | Filed |
| 2021 | Missing |
| 2022 | Missing |
| 2023 | Missing |
| 2024 | Missing |
| 2025 | Not yet filed |
The IRS has not assessed balances for 2021–2024 and does not appear to have filed SFRs for those years.
New Plan
Phase 1 — Determine the size of the problem
Prepare rough estimates for:
| Year | Likely Result |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Unknown |
| 2022 | Unknown |
| 2023 | Unknown |
| 2024 | Unknown |
The key question is:
Do these returns produce refunds or tax due?
Because you had substantial withholding in several years, some of these may not be disasters at all.
Phase 2 — Build the returns
Use the Wage & Income transcripts as the starting point.
The most important years are:
- 2024
- 2023
- 2022
- 2021
because those are the years the IRS currently shows as unfiled.
Phase 3 — File all four returns
Once the returns are built:
- If refunds are due, claim what can still be claimed.
- If tax is due, file anyway.
- Filing is usually more important than paying immediately.
Phase 4 — Deal with balances
Only after the returns exist do we determine:
payment plan needs
total tax
penalties
interest