Past Year Tax – Some Things to Know About Past Year Tax Returns

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To get caught up with the tax returns which you have missed in previous years, you will need to get current by submitting past year taxes. This is basically obtaining the old tax forms, gathering all the information and preparing it as you would have done it.

It is definitely essential that you get these done in time particularly if you forsee financial changes in your life. A new house is a great example. If you want a mortgage loan or a business loan, your past tax returns are one of the important documents that is used by the financial institution to evaluate you.

One question that gets often asked is “Will I get a refund for a past year if I file the past year tax return now?”

The answer is “It depends!”

The tax return has to be submitted within 3 years of its due date. How come within three years? That is what is called the ‘statute of limitations’ for tax refunds. Once the 3 years are over, the refund is forfeited. For example, if you did not file a tax return for 2008 that was originally due on April 15th 2009. You could still file that 2008 return by April 15th 2011 and still get a refund in case it had been due to

Our experience reveals that when an individual thinks that they owe money to the Irs, they steer clear from submitting their tax returns. Personal difficulties are usually the common cause. Picture someone going through a hard divorce, a death inside the family, or perhaps some other personal misfortune. Doing the tax return  is probably last on their heads. Frequently people catch up on their tax returns within a year or two, but not always. There are situations where tax returns have not been filed for many, many years.

Can you Eifile the past year tax return? The simple answer is NO.

The IRS needs you to manually send the completed tax forms. Bear in mind the difference between online filing and E filing.

Just what is the distinction between on-line tax preparation and E-filing? With an e-file, the information contained on your tax forms is delivered to the IRS in an electronic format and you do not have to mail in your tax forms.

When a tax software company uses the internet for people to use the software its called online tax preparation.  You are essentially running your own version of the the tax software over the internet.

But remember for past years tax returns, IRS will not allow e-filing, so regardless of how you prepare that return, you will nonetheless need to postal mail it.

What tax forms do you need to to file a past year taxes? You would need the particular tax forms from the actual past year to prepare the tax return. These are readily available on the IRS site.

Is there software programs available that will do a past year tax calculations? Most people are stuck with using an older edition of  tax software. That is if you can find it. You will be lucky to find this software, since most software manufacturers only support their software program for a certain number of years. It is not economical for their company to support software for which there are extremely few customers.

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