Prior Year Tax Returns - Need Help Understanding Process for Filing 2020-2022 Returns
I have to file taxes for 2020, 2021, and 2022. Never filed them and now I need to catch up. Anyone gone through this process before? How long does it typically take to get refunds for past years? Getting nervous about penalties too.
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Douglas Foster
Tax professional here - Prior year returns need to be filed by mail, not electronically. Download the correct year's forms from IRS.gov, fill them out carefully, and include all W2s/1099s. Processing time is typically 16-20 weeks for paper returns, but can be longer. For penalties, you might qualify for First Time Penalty Abatement if you had a clean compliance history.
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Haley Bennett
•Thanks! Do you know if I need to wait for each year to process before filing the next one?
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Douglas Foster
•Nope! You can send all years at once. Just mail them in separate envelopes to make sure they don't get mixed up 👍
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Nina Chan
Hey there! I recently discovered taxr.ai and it was a game changer for understanding my prior year returns. It costs $1 but totally worth it - gives you a complete breakdown of what's happening with your transcript and estimates for refund timing. Here's the link: https://taxr.ai
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Ruby Knight
•Does it actually work? Seems too good to be true tbh 🤔
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Nina Chan
•OMG yes! It analyzed my 2021 transcript and showed exactly why my refund was delayed. Even caught some errors I wouldn't have noticed
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Diego Castillo
went thru this last year. took forever but finally got all my refunds. definitely get all your documentation together first its a pain in the butt to track down old W2s
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Logan Stewart
Anyone know if you can still get stimulus payments from 2020/2021 if you file now? 💰
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Mikayla Brown
•yup! claim the Recovery Rebate Credit on the tax return for that year
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Sean Matthews
DONT FORGET TO KEEP COPIES OF EVERYTHING YOU SEND!!!! learned that the hard way when IRS lost my 2019 return 🤡
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Haley Bennett
•omg thats terrifying. definitely will make copies!
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Ali Anderson
In the same boat rn. Started with a tax preparer but they wanted $400 PER YEAR to file 😭 decided to try it myself
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Zadie Patel
•check if you qualify for VITA - they do free tax prep if you make under 60k
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