Can I file previous years’ taxes? If I didn’t file a federal return for the last few years, am I responsible for filing those late returns?

If you did not meet the filing requirements, you aren’t required to file for previous years’ taxes. There are gross income thresholds you should check for each year you did not file. Dependents and non-dependents have different filing return requirements.

Special Cases for Filing Prior Year Taxes

Also, other situations might require you to file prior year taxes (federal), especially if you owe any special taxes like these:

• Alternative minimum tax (AMT)
• Additional tax on a qualified plan, including an IRA, or other tax-favored account. However, if you’re filing taxes only because of this tax, you can file Form 5329 by itself.
• Household employment taxes. However, if you file a return only because of this tax, you can file Schedule H by itself.
• Social Security and Medicare tax on either of these:
  • Tips you didn’t report to your employer
  • Wages you received from an employer who didn’t withhold these taxes
• Recapture taxes, like the first-time homebuyer credit
• Write-in taxes, including uncollected Social Security and Medicare or railroad retirement tax on either of these:
  • Tips reported to your employer
  • Group-term life insurance and additional tax on health savings account (HSA) distributions
• You — or your spouse if filing jointly — received distributions from any of these:
  • HSA
  • Archer MSA
  • Medicare Advantage MSA distributions
• Net earnings from self-employment of at least $400
• Wages of $108.28 or more from a church or qualified organization that’s exempt from employer Social Security and Medicare taxes

Why Consider Filing Prior Year Taxes?

Even if you aren’t required to file, you might want to. This way, you can get a refund of any withholding or refundable credits. You usually can still get a refund for up to three years prior. So, for 2023, you can still file for 2022, 2021, and 2020. This will also help you with a net-operating-loss carryover. Then you might take the carryover in future years, when there is enough income to offset it.

If you want to file those prior-year returns, you can’t do it using H&R Block Online. However, you can file prior-year returns in either of these two ways:

• Talk to a tax professional at one of our office locations nationwide.
• Use a prior-year version of H&R Block Software

More Help With Filing Previous Years’ Taxes

For more assistance with filing previous years’ taxes, get help from H&R Block. With many filing options, you can choose the method that works best with your lifestyle.