Make $400,000 and Never Filed Your Taxes? The IRS Will Be in Touch.
Agency is sending out 125,000 notices to nonfilers who earned $400,000 or more
Feb. 29, 2024 2:00 pm ET
(4 min)
Due to short staffing, the IRS had greatly cut back on sending notices to those who fail to file their tax returns. PHOTO: ERIN SCOTT/REUTERS
High earners who don’t file their taxes are about to hear from the IRS.
The agency said it started sending out more than 125,000 notices to individuals who made $400,000 or more and failed to file returns between 2017 and 2021. Even without a tax return, the IRS has a pretty good idea about their income from forms like W-2s and 1099s.
“The IRS is taking this step to address this most basic form of noncompliance, which includes many who are engaged in tax evasion,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “If someone hasn’t filed a tax return, this is the time to make it right.”
Taxpayers are responsible for declaring their income, calculating their tax bill correctly and filing a return on time. The most common reasons people fail to do so are procrastination, financial woes, tax evasion or protest, tax advisers said.
The consequences can be costly once the IRS catches up with you. There are penalties and interest for failing to file and make payments. Nonfilers can also face criminal prosecution in extreme cases.
One thing nonfilers haven’t had to fear, until recently, was hearing about their shortcomings from the IRS. The agency generally knows who should be filing a return but hasn’t had the staff to handle correspondence with these taxpayers, so it greatly cut back sending out notices, Werfel said.
The first batch of more than 25,000 letters will go out to taxpayers with more than $1 million in income, followed by more than 100,000 letters to people with incomes between $400,000 and $1 million. The notice says to file your return immediately or to explain either why you are late or don’t have to file.
The IRS expects the enforcement to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes. The agency doesn’t know precisely how much money these taxpayers owe because it doesn’t have complete information on what credits and deductions they can claim.
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