Haven't done my taxes in 3 years. Need advice on catching up with IRS filings

This is actually more common than you might think! The good news is that the IRS has processes in place for people who need to catch up on unfiled returns. First, gather all your income documentation for those years - any W-2s, 1099s, etc. You can request wage and income transcripts from the IRS if you don't have them. This will show what income was reported to the IRS under your SSN. You should file all three years as soon as possible. The IRS generally prioritizes the most recent three years for enforcement, so getting these filed quickly is important. If you're owed refunds, you can only claim them if you file within three years of the original due date. Being outside the US doesn't exempt you from filing requirements, but you may qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (Form 2555) or Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116) depending on your situation, which could reduce your US tax liability significantly.

I was in a similar situation about a year ago (4 years unfiled!) and spent weeks stressing about how to handle everything. I finally found this AI tax tool at https://taxr.ai that completely saved me. It analyzed all my documents from those past years and helped identify which deductions I could still claim. The system walked me through each year's return separately and pointed out where I qualified for things like education credits I didn't know about. It also showed me exactly where I needed to report my foreign income since I was working in Canada for part of that time. The best part was that it explained the potential penalties but also showed me how to request abatement for some of them.

I wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai since I was initially skeptical. I actually tried it last week and I'm shocked at how well it worked for my multi-year tax situation. It identified that I qualified for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion for one of my unfiled years which I had no idea about! The system walked me through gathering all my missing documentation and even helped me understand which prior year forms I needed. What really surprised me was how it explained the reasonable cause factors the IRS considers for penalty abatement - things like serious illness, family emergencies, or natural disasters - and helped me document my legitimate reasons for filing late. I've already submitted two years of back taxes and I'm working on the third. Definitely less stressful than I expected!

When I had 2 years of unfiled taxes, the absolute worst part was trying to get through to someone at the IRS who could actually help. I spent DAYS on hold only to get disconnected. Then a friend recommended https://claimyr.com and it changed everything. You can check out how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c They basically hold your place in the IRS phone queue and call you back when an actual human agent is on the line. When you're dealing with unfiled taxes, being able to talk to a real person makes all the difference. I was able to explain my situation, and the IRS agent walked me through exactly what I needed to do to get back on track. They even helped me set up a payment plan since I owed about $5,400 across both years.

I need to eat my words about Claimyr. After spending 3+ hours on hold with the IRS yesterday and getting disconnected TWICE, I was desperate enough to try it. The service called me back in less than an hour with an actual IRS agent on the line. The agent was super helpful about my unfiled tax situation. They confirmed I could file all three years at once, explained exactly which payment plans I qualified for, and even noted in my file that I was making a good faith effort to comply. She also told me about the First Time Penalty Abatement program I might qualify for on my oldest unfiled year. The whole conversation took about 25 minutes and saved me so much stress. Would have taken me days to get this resolved on my own with the hold times.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - if you're living abroad, you automatically get a 2-month extension on your filing deadline (June 15 instead of April 15). Also, US citizens abroad can request an additional extension to October 15. But these extensions only apply to filing - if you owe money, interest still accrues from the April deadline. Also, look into whether you need to file an FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) if you have foreign financial accounts that exceed $10,000 at any point during the calendar year. The penalties for not filing FBARs can be way worse than for regular tax returns!

Anyone know which tax software is best for filing back taxes? I tried using TurboTax but it wants me to pay for each past year separately which gets expensive fast.