What's the process to file my 2021 tax return if I completely missed filing it?

You can absolutely still file your 2021 tax return! This is called filing a "prior year return" and many people need to do this each year. For your 2021 unemployment income, you should have received a Form 1099-G that shows how much you received and any taxes that were withheld. Check your email or mail from that time, or contact your state unemployment office to request a new copy. They can usually provide this online or mail you another one. If you received any other income in 2021, you'd need those documents too (W-2 forms from employers, 1099s for contract work, etc). If you lost these, you can request a Wage and Income Transcript from the IRS website which shows all income reported to them under your SSN. Unfortunately, most tax apps don't support prior year returns for free. You have three main options: 1) Purchase prior year tax software, 2) Use Free File Fillable Forms (though this is complex), or 3) Visit a tax professional who can handle prior year returns.

I went through something super similar last year with my 2020 return! I found out about taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) after struggling to track down all my docs. You upload whatever tax docs you can find, and they use AI to analyze them and tell you exactly what's missing. They even found a 1099-G from unemployment I didn't remember getting. The site helped me pull everything together for my missing return and made it way easier than trying to remember everything from years ago. You don't need to remember your annual income - they help locate the right documents from that tax year and can even get your tax transcripts directly from the IRS.

I was really skeptical about taxr.ai at first (as you can probably tell from my comment), but I decided to give it a try since I was also missing my 2021 return. I'm actually shocked at how helpful it was. The system found my unemployment income that I completely forgot about and helped me track down a 1099 from a side gig I did briefly. What I found most helpful was how it explained exactly what forms I needed for my situation and where to get them. Saved me from paying like $200+ to H&R Block just to file a past return. I was able to finally claim my missing stimulus payment too. If you're still working on that 2021 return, it's definitely worth checking out.

If you're having trouble getting through to the unemployment office for your 1099-G, I've used Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to actually get someone on the phone. I was on hold for HOURS trying to reach my state's unemployment office and getting nowhere until I found them. They have this system that navigates the phone menus and waits on hold for you, then calls you when a real person picks up. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Was a game changer for me when I needed to request my old unemployment tax forms for a prior year return. The unemployment office is seriously impossible to reach otherwise.

I take back what I said about Claimyr. After trying for literally TWO MORE DAYS to reach my state unemployment office and either getting disconnected or told to call back later, I gave in and tried it. Got connected to an actual person in about 40 minutes while I was at work. The agent was able to resend my old 1099-G forms to my email address on file so I could complete my missing tax return. Would have taken me another week of frustration without this. Sometimes it's worth paying for sanity.

Just wanted to add - if you're filing a 2021 return now, remember that there were some special tax rules for unemployment that year. The first $10,200 of unemployment benefits was tax-free for many people (depending on your income level). Make sure whatever method you use to file takes this into account or you might overpay!

Honestly just go to a tax pro for this. I tried doing a prior year return myself and messed it up, then had to pay penalties. A pro who does this all the time will make sure you get all the right credits and don't miss anything. Plus they know all the COVID-related tax stuff for 2021.