I never did taxes, and am not this year... will anything happen?

to be honest I don't even understand what they are all about... don't they take money outta my paychecks?

I'm 20 and I live @ home still and go to school if that makes a dfifference.

You probably have refunds coming. Note that you can only get a refund if you file for it within 3 years.

Several years in a row I did not bother to file because I was only going to get back a few dollars.

Then one day I got a letter telling me that I owed the government several hundred dollars for the first year that I failed to file.

I asked what the deal was and they told me that without the w2 forms there is no record that any money was ever paid in.

In other words they take the money and don't bother to keep any record of it.

That is up to you to do when you file.

They will only care if you owe them money. If they owe YOU money, they will not be offended if you never ask them for it back.

If you earned money, you may or may not owe taxes. Depends how much you made, and how much was withheld from your taxes.

If you had ANY withheld, likely you can get some back if you didn't earn much for the year. Doing your tax return is how you get any overpayment refunded to you.

As for what taxes are all about...it's how money is raised to run the country, and pay for any and all government programs, and police, and highways, and the military, and medical research...the list is quite long.

Taxes come from many sources. Real estate tax, sales tax, income tax. Tax returns are for doing the final numbers on your income for the year, taking advantage of any deductions you may be entitled to, and getting the final tax figure. Then - if you paid into or had withheld, more money than your total tax bill, they refund you the overpayment. If your tax bill is bigger than was was paid/withheld, you pay the difference.

They might take too much out of your paycheck, or might not take out enough.

If they don't take out enough, you will most likely be hearing from the IRS although it might take a year or more - by then you'll owe plenty in interest and penalties in addition to the amount you owed originally.

If they took out too much, then you are just giving away your refund each year you don't file. The IRS won't notify you about that.

They probably owe you money.
GO SEE!!


Peace!