What Happens If I Don’t File Taxes?
Key Takeaways
• Not everyone needs to file a tax return each year as several factors come into play when determining your filing requirements.
• Generally, if you earn less than the standard deduction for your applicable filing status, you don’t need to file unless you have special tax circumstances.
• Not filing a return when you should can result in penalties and fines from the IRS.
• Not filing a return when you need to is worse than filing a late return.
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Do I have to file taxes?
This depends on several factors including your income type. From self-employment, through an employer or investments) and amount, tax filing status, age, and other factors.
Generally, not everyone needs to file a tax return each year. In fact, you won’t need to file a tax return unless your total income exceeds certain thresholds, or you meet specific filing requirements.
Typically, if your income is less than the standard deduction, you don’t need to file a tax return. However, even if this is the case, you may still need to file a tax return if you meet certain conditions. You won’t need to file a tax return if all of the following are true for your situation:
- You’re under age 65
- Earn less than the 2021 standard deduction for your filing status
- Don’t have any special circumstances that require you to file (like earning $400 or more of net self-employment income)
- Don’t have unearned income of more than $1,100 for 2021 as a child or other dependent
If you don’t meet all of these conditions, you may need to file a tax return. However, in the event you don’t meet all of these conditions, you may still want to file a tax return anyway. If you earned income during the year and had taxes withheld from your pay, to get any excess you’re owed back via a refund, you’ll need to file a tax refund.
The IRS doesn’t automatically issue refunds if you’ve overpaid your tax bill each year. In that case, you want to file a tax return to claim any tax refund you may be entitled to claim.
For example, suppose you file as a single taxpayer who had $500 of federal income tax withheld from your $6,000 of earnings and no one else can claim you as a dependent on their tax return. You likely can get that money back since you earned less than the standard deduction for your applicable filing status. However, you can only get it by filing a tax return.
What happens if you file taxes late?
Generally speaking, the earlier you can file your return, the better.
In the event you file taxes late, the IRS starts by sending you a summons. If you earned enough income from a W-2 job or from self-employment during the tax year, generally, you should receive a W-2 or 1099 form reporting your income. Even if you don’t report income on your tax return, you must remember that your employer or client might have.
The summons comes via mail and the IRS collection process begins, meaning the IRS has a reasonable belief that you do owe taxes. You’re legally required to meet with the IRS for you to determine your tax liability.
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What happens if you don’t file taxes?
If you need to file taxes but choose not to, the IRS has several means for bringing you to the table. Actions include, but are not limited to, assessing penalties, fines, and interest; enforcing tax liens, or more severe measures, for evading any taxes you might owe.
If you fail to file your taxes on time, you’ll likely encounter what’s called a Failure to File Penalty. The penalty for failing to file represents 5% of your unpaid tax liability for each month your return is late, up to 25% of your total unpaid taxes.
If you’re due a refund, there’s no penalty for failure to file. Though, you do lose the chance of getting that refund. You have a limited period to claim that refund as well. If you haven’t filed an original return within 3 years of its due date for a refund, you’ve missed the statute of limitations entitling you to the chance of claiming that refund.
What happens if you pay taxes late?
If you filed a tax return on time but didn’t pay any owed taxes when they were due, the IRS will likely assess a penalty on you. You’ll also learn of this penalty through the mail.
The penalty for failing to pay taxes on time is based on how long your overdue taxes remain unpaid. Failing to pay is a lot less expensive than paying the penalty for failing to file: 0.5% of the unpaid taxes for each month or part of a month the tax remains unpaid. The IRS won’t levy a penalty of more than 25% of your unpaid taxes.
If you incur both penalties in the same month, the IRS will reduce the Failure to File Penalty by the amount of the Failure to Pay Penalty. For example, if you didn’t file a return and pay your taxes for an entire month, the 5% Failure to File Penalty would be reduced by 0.5%, and only a 4.5% net penalty would apply.
The IRS gets a bit more lenient if you missed your tax payment but filed your individual tax return and have an approved payment plan in place. In this case, the Failure to Pay Penalty is reduced to 0.25% per month (or partial month) during your approved payment plan.
However, if you still choose not to pay your taxes within 10 days of receiving a notice from the IRS with an intent to levy taxes against you, the Failure to Pay Penalty becomes 1% per month or partial month.
The IRS applies full monthly charges on these penalties, even if you pay your taxes in full before the month ends.
After 60 days of failing to pay, your bill, in addition to the taxes you originally owed, will be a minimum of $435 or 100% of the tax required to be shown on the return, whichever is less.
If you do eventually file your taxes on time or pay your owed taxes, you can request to have the penalty removed by calling or writing to the IRS through a process called an abatement. Though, repeat offenders aren’t likely to have these requests approved. The IRS generally only allows you a pass on your first time missing deadlines under the First Time Penalty Abatement Policy.
Will you pay interest if you don’t file or pay taxes on time?
If you don’t pay your taxes on time, the IRS won’t only levy penalties for not paying on time, they’ll also assess interest on your past-due taxes as well.
The IRS begins accruing interest starting on the date your original tax bill was due, often the federal tax filing deadline each year. The date is generally April 15, though it can move depending on where the date falls in a week.
To make matters worse, you might owe this interest not only on the unpaid tax balance the IRS states that you owe, but you may also have to pay interest on the penalty if you fail to pay that amount as well.
To calculate the interest you owe to the IRS, the agency uses the federal short-term rate and then tacks on an additional 3%. The Failure to Pay Penalty interest is equal to 0.5% for each month you don’t pay.
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What happens if you refuse to file taxes?
If penalties and interest aren’t discouraging enough and you outright refuse to file taxes, the IRS can enforce tax liens against your property or even pursue civil or criminal litigation against you until you pay. The severity of your refusal will determine the path the IRS will take.
Refusing to file taxes could result in the IRS filing a return for you. This return, called a substitute for return, isn’t always the most favorable for your situation.
The IRS will use the information it has available (such as 1099 forms or your W-2) but won’t give you any of the available tax credits or deductions that you might have used if you’d prepared your own tax return.
As a result, you’ll be set up to pay the maximum possible taxes while also paying the associated penalties for failing to file on time or pay your taxes, in addition to any interest charges you’ve accrued.
Should I file taxes even if I don’t have to?
While not everyone needs to file a tax return, based on 2020 tax year numbers, Americans filed nearly 170 million tax returns. Data shows that most Americans decide to file, even if they don’t need to file one.
If you have federal income taxes withheld from your paycheck, the only way you can receive a tax refund when too much was withheld is if you file a tax return.
You might also be required to claim tax credits like the Earned Income Credit or for one-off events like the Recovery Rebate Credit, the payments better known as “stimulus checks,” which acted as advance refundable tax credits. Some refundable tax credits specifically require you to file a return, even if you don’t earn enough or meet one of the other criteria used for determining your need to file a return.
What happens if you don’t file taxes and you don’t owe money?
You might think that because you don’t owe any money to the IRS that you don’t need to file a return. However, owing tax versus facing a filing requirement, are two separate situations in the eyes of the IRS.
The IRS maintains restrictive guidelines for determining who needs to file a return. Because of that, it could mean that even if you don’t owe the IRS money, you may still need to file a return anyway. The restrictions used by the IRS are based on the amount and type of income you receive and whether your income will fall below the standard deduction applicable to your filing status.
More often than not, you’re better off filing a return, even if you don’t need to. That way, you won’t run afoul of any IRS filing requirements, letting you avoid the penalties, interest, and other consequences that come with not filing or paying your taxes on time.
What to do if you can’t pay your taxes right now
If money’s tight and you can’t afford to pay your taxes right now, the IRS offers payment options to spread out the time required to pay your taxes. You can set up a payment plan directly through the IRS website using their Online Payment Agreement tool.
To qualify, your specific tax situation will determine which payment options you can use. The available options include full payment, a short-term payment plan lasting 180 days or less, or a long-term payment plan or installment agreement that requires you to make monthly payments.
If you choose to pay upfront through the IRS Direct Pay portal, you won’t pay a setup fee nor will you need to pay future penalties or interest added to your balance. Under the short-term payment plan, you also won’t encounter a setup fee, but you’ll need to pay accrued penalties and interest until the balance is paid in full.
If you elect to apply for a long-term payment plan through automatic withdrawals from your checking account, you’ll pay $31 (unless you qualify as low-income when the IRS will waive the fee) and, like the short-term payment plan, you’ll pay accrued penalties and interest until the balance is paid in full.
If you opt for non-direct debit, you’ll face a $130 installment agreement setup fee. If you need to revise an existing payment plan or reinstate it after a default, you’ll be charged a $10 fee.
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