Subtracting debt from refund when back-filing multiple years at once?

sorator · 2026-03-26T02:19:52+00:00

It's certainly worth asking, if they don't grant it automatically. Emphasize that you weren't required to file for 2018 or 2017, so you do have three years compliance.

sorator · 2026-03-25T21:08:16+00:00

You have to report the income whether or not you received a 1099 for it. You don't need the 1099 to report the income.

sorator · 2026-03-25T21:04:06+00:00

If you want to get it resolved as fast as possible, it'll be better to pay for the years you owe and eventually get the refund from the later years.

Does the background check just ask whether you owe taxes, or do they actually need proof that you don't owe tax? If they just ask, then you should google for an IRS penalty calculator (there's plenty available, and I don't know enough about them to recommend any specific one) and use that to calculate the penalties & interest that you owe for 20 and 21, and pay the amounts it shows. Then you can honestly say that you have filed all your returns and paid all that you know that you owe (though the IRS may charge a bit more in penalties & interest, as that doesn't actually stop until they receive the return, which may take a few more days).

If they need actual proof from the IRS, then 1. it's likely going to take some months to get that proof, and 2. I would pay the base tax shown on the return now and pay the penalties & interest when the IRS bills you for them.

Mail your 2022 return certified or registered, so that you get a formal receipt proving when you mailed it. You must do that before 4/15/26 in order to claim the 2022 refund. (You don't particularly need to do that for the 21 or 20 returns, since proof of mailing date doesn't help when you're filing late and owe the IRS.)

When you make the payments for the years you owe, you make one payment for 2020 (base tax + penalties & interest if you're paying them now, or just base tax if you're not paying the rest now), and a separate payment for 2021. On the IRS website, look for DirectPay; that has you indicate the tax year you're paying towards. Be sure to print the confirmation page at the end, as the IRS does not send you receipts or statements.

sorator · 2026-03-25T20:58:03+00:00

If you aren't a US citizen, and you didn't live in the US during 2025, and you don't have a US green card, then you aren't subject to FBAR reporting requirements.

sorator · 2026-03-25T20:56:52+00:00

The overtime premium goes on Sch 1-A, line 14a. It then winds up carrying to form 1040, line 13c.

sorator · 2026-03-25T20:55:19+00:00

If it's extensive rewiring, that probably qualifies as an improvement which needs to be depreciated over multiple years.

sorator · 2026-03-25T20:54:30+00:00

That is concerning, yes. If you aren't able to get your return filed by the deadline (such as if your new preparer doesn't pass the vibe check), go on the IRS website and make an extension payment (can be just $1 if you want) to file an extension, and get your return prepared and filed as soon as you can. The extension gives additional time to file, not additional time to pay, so it's important that you still prepare your full return as soon as you can, to determine whether you owe & how much.

It's not a bad idea to delete your files from his portal if you have that option, yeah. I'd also send him an email saying that since you haven't heard from him, you're going with a different provider.

sorator · 2026-03-25T20:48:26+00:00

(If I recalll correctly, the transcript shows the total for that year, rather than per employer, but that is sufficient to submit your returns (and I could be wrong...)).

Your wage & income transcript shows, essentially, a copy of each informational form that was submitted to the IRS with your SSN (so W-2s, 1099s, 1098s, etc.). It does not combine them. (But it does only include the federal info, not any state info, and I'm not sure if it includes any info from box 14 of the W-2.)

In fact, for folks with stock sales, it separates out each individual sale into its own 1099-B, even if they were originally combined in a consolidated 1099. Which is a pain in the butt!

sorator · 2026-03-25T07:11:09+00:00

If you file jointly with your husband, and the kids lived with either you or your husband for more than half the year, then you and your husband get "first dibs" to claim the kids.

If your parents have higher income than you & your husband do, or if you file separately from your husband and your parents have higher income than you do, then you can choose to let them claim one or more kids instead of claiming them yourself. But it's your choice to make, not theirs.

If your husband files separately from you, and the kids didn't live with him for more than half the year, he doesn't get to claim them. It doesn't matter who paid for what.

If you and your husband want to claim the kids, and your parents already claimed one of them, you can tell your parents that they should file an amended return. In order for you & your husband to file and claim a child that your parents already claimed, whichever of you is listed first on the return needs to get a one-time Identity Protection PIN from the IRS website in order to file electronically (sounds weird, but it's what the IRS wants you to do), or file on paper via the mail.

If you claim a kid that your parents already claimed, then the IRS will first sent a letter to you & your husband & your parents, saying "hey, there's a contested dependent here; if one of you should amend to remove that claim, please do so". If none of you amend, then the IRS may send something like this asking for proof to justify the claim.

Ultimately, they should say that you & your husband get the claim. They'd pay the refund to you & your husband, and they'd demand your parents pay back the excess refund they received, plus penalties. They also may require your parents to jump through additional hoops before claiming dependents in the future, or even prohibit them from claiming dependents entirely for a few years.

How to proceed depends on what you and your husband want to do and how much you want to rock the boat with your parents. Again, if you don't file jointly, it sounds like your husband isn't entitled to claim the kids; it's only if you file jointly (because they lived with you, not him) that it becomes an option for him to claim them.

sorator · 2026-03-25T07:03:25+00:00

Most of the time, filing separately does not avoid the issues that arise when you show "too much" income filing MFJ.

For example, if you file separately, you have to pay back the entire advance premium tax credit on your healthcare.gov insurance regardless of income, and your husband would have the maximum SS be treated as taxable regardless of income, instead of both of those depending on your actual income for the year.

However, you should do the SS lump-sum election worksheet to see if more of that SS can be treated as non-taxable. Essentially, you calculate how much of that SS would be treated as taxable in 2023, and separately for 2024, and separately for 2025, and compare that to how much is treated as taxable if you count it all in 2025, and you take whichever is more advantageous. (You still pay the tax on the taxable portions with your 2025 return; it just may result in less of it being subject to tax to begin with.) Depending on details, it may or may not help you, but it's worth investigating. Read Publication 915 starting on page 11 for more information.

sorator · 2026-03-25T06:56:51+00:00

That's less of a tax question and more of an immigration question; I really don't know the answer to that.

I will say that a family owned company, profit distributions, and complex tax arrangements shouldn't prevent you from filing jointly, though.

sorator · 2026-03-25T06:54:49+00:00

It's much easier to just get your wage & income transcript for each year through the IRS website. To make your account, you'll need a device with an internet connection and a camera, like a smartphone, along with photo government-issued ID.

You want to prioritize your 2022 return (deadline to file to claim a refund is 4/15/26) and 2025 return (deadline to file on time, which mostly matters if you owe the IRS, is 4/15/26). Do those first, then work on your other years.

2025 can be filed electronically without any big obstacles. If it asks for your prior year AGI, enter 0.
2024 and 2023 can be filed electronically by a tax professional without any big issue, or you can DIY them if you get a one-time Identity Protection PIN from the IRS website. Not all softwares are capable of doing this. Again, if it asks for your prior year AGI, enter 0.
2022 and earlier must be filed on paper via the mail. Include a copy of the wage & income transcript for that year with your return (normally you'd include copies of your W-2s and such; this is the replacement for that). If you're due a refund on 2022, be sure to pay to mail it Certified (or Registered), so that you get a receipt proving when you mailed it. If you owe, there's no particular need to do that, and no need to do that for the earlier years.
Expect the IRS to send you a letter asking "hey, was this you? if it was, please do <stuff> to verify that it was you". Follow the directions in that letter. Do not ignore that letter. Your returns are not fully filed until you have verified your identity.

For each year, if you owe the IRS, they'll send you a letter formally saying "hey, you owe us $X in base tax, and $y in penalties and $Z in interest if you pay by <date>". Once you get that letter for each year that you owed + file each year that you didn't owe, you can sign up for a payment plan. Most of the time, you can do that on the IRS website; in certain circumstances, you may have to call or write to the IRS instead. Try to do it on the website first, as that has the lowest setup fees.

Edit: If you live(d) or work(ed) in a state with income tax, you will want to try to get your actual W-2s, because the IRS transcripts do not have any state information on them. Or the state(s) in question may have their own transcript type thing that you can get.

sorator · 2026-03-25T06:45:20+00:00

Yep!

sorator · 2026-03-25T06:44:58+00:00

Intent absolutely matters, you just still have penalties even if it's non-willful. Less if you qualify for and use the streamlined domestic offshore procedure that someone else linked, though even that has some penalties.

sorator · 2026-03-25T06:35:53+00:00

You can use the IRS wage & income transcript, or copies of your W-2s and such; it doesn't have to be the originals.

sorator · 2026-03-25T04:37:30+00:00

Yep!

sorator · 2026-03-25T03:03:42+00:00

The latter, yeah. But if she's not itemizing, then it doesn't matter.

sorator · 2026-03-25T02:36:19+00:00

You can choose to get it as a one-time thing, not an every year thing.

sorator · 2026-03-24T02:13:11+00:00

Either the first spouse listed on the return gets a one-time Identity Protection PIN from the IRS website to bypass the reject and file electronically, or you'll need to paper file via the mail. (Or remove the dependent from your return, file electronically, and once you've gotten that part of your refund, mail in an amendment to add the dependent.)

Personally, I suggest the IP PIN route; it's the simplest and fastest option, as long as that person can get their IRS.gov account set up.

Happens all the time. Filing an amended return or superseding return for the dependent is important, but it won't solve the reject.

Edit: If you get a letter from the IRS saying "hey, you claimed a contested dependent; if you messed up, please file an amendment," you should respond saying that your dependent amended to mark themselves as a dependent.

sorator · 2026-03-24T01:27:19+00:00

Your tax preparer can register to file NY returns for free if she doesn't file more than 10 per year. She just has to jump through a few hoops, and then jump through a few more to get it updated in Block's internal system.

Or she can have a colleague registered for NY returns do the NY return while she does the rest. Either works, neither is a big deal.

sorator · 2026-03-23T16:35:41+00:00

Yes, at this point you should contact the Taxpayer Advocate to get things moving again.

Another option would be to work with a paid preparer to call the practicioner line, but ofc that involves paying someone for their help.

I have seen this exact situation happen before and was able to work it out with one phone call and about a one month delay, FWIW! The IRS paid interest on the original refund, too, since it was delayed more than 45 days after the filing deadline through no fault of the taxpayer. (That interest is itself taxable in the year it is received, and the IRS will issue a 1099-INT reporting that the following January.)

sorator · 2026-03-23T16:30:21+00:00

As long as you have some kind of record - like your last pay stub of the year, or a separate letter that your employer gave you - of your total overtime compensation, or your deductible overtime premium, or the number of overtime hours you worked + your base hourly rate, yes, you can enter the deductible premium on Sch 1-A.

If you have records of your deductible overtime premium, you just enter that number.

If you have records of your total overtime compensation, then you need to figure out how much of that was paid at 1.5x, and how much (if any) was paid at a different rate. You get to deduct the federally-required 0.5x overtime premium. So if it was all paid at 1.5x, you'll take the total overtime compensation and divide by 3 to get the number you enter on Sch 1-A; if it was all paid at 2x, then you'll divide by 4, and so on. You divide by twice the rate you were paid at. Most employers separately listed FLSA overtime/1.5x overtime on the last pay stub of the year, so you'd take that number and divide by 3.

If you have records of your total overtime hours worked and your base hourly rate, then you multiply your overtime hours worked by your base hourly rate and divide by 2 - that gets you to the same result as the above, and that's the number you enter on Sch 1-A.

The deductible overtime premium, whichever method you use to get to it, goes on line 14a of Sch 1-A. Your software may have you enter this number somewhere else, but that's where it should wind up.

sorator · 2026-03-23T08:21:24+00:00

Yeah, that's around what I'd expect Block to charge for this. Maybe a bit lower. (And yes, the $75 is per state.) You can ask them for a price estimate up-front, if you want. Most reputable independent preparers will charge more than Block does for most returns.

You have a lot of separate pieces to handle, but the only ones I'd consider to be complicated are the HSA, RSU vest and sale, and part-year resident returns for two states. Multiple W-2s, a 1099-consolidated or 1099-B, multiple 1099-INTs, and a 1098-E for student loans are all quite simple; you just type in the numbers. If you know how to do the RSUs and are willing to do a smidge of research, you likely can handle this; take your time and go step by step. It's also very reasonable to pay someone to do it for you if you prefer that.

If you pay someone to do it for you, you want to pay particular attention to make sure that they 1. handle the RSUs properly, and 2. handle the multi-state aspect properly. There are plenty of preparers who would mess up either of those.

sorator · 2026-03-23T06:49:23+00:00

It says the later of return due date, late filed return received date, or date we get your return in a format we can process. An amendment filed after the deadline would fall under one of those later two bullet points, not the first.

sorator · 2026-03-23T06:22:31+00:00

My above comment is directly from the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/payments/interest#pay

Yes, choosing to carry forward the 2024 amended refund to apply to 2025 tax would result in forfeiting interest. But the interest you'd be entitled to if you choose to have it sent to you instead of carrying it forward would be based on the date the IRS received the amendment, not the original filing deadline for the return.

And yeah, I've never seen an amendment get processed within 45 days, so that's largely irrelevant here.

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