Past Due Returns & Streamlined Procedures

 

Per IRC section 6511, the amount of time you have to claim and receive your refund is subject to limitation.  That alone may be an incentive to some to file their past due tax returns.  Furthermore, if you are self-employed and live in a country that has not entered into a totalization agreement with the United States, the only way for the Social Security Administration to know that you had profit from business is for you to file a federal income tax return.

 

If you have resided abroad and have not filed your returns for quite some time, inquire whether you are eligible to file under the IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, in order to avoid an assessment of penalties. Filing of delinquent income tax and information returns under the Streamlined Procedures is available only to those taxpayers whose conduct was not willful.   ​

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