Income tax help (young confused)

[Robert gree]

Ok little background, Im 20 years of age have always done under the table work or just odd stuff for family and such. Did work at a grocery store for about 7 months making 171 a week that was in 08.

Ive late 08 early 09 i took care of my grandfather and basically my compensation was i got my bills payed (he was bed ridden). Have never pulled over 13k a year.

Im getting ready to go to college and everywhere i go for a student loan wants a W-2 income tax records. I have neither. And honestly im kind of worried when i do file the IRS is going to wonder why i have not filed for 2 years and ill be in deep crap. I have no proof of income or anything lost all my old records in a move so basically they could have there way.

Im slap lost and confused and 2 of the local tax people were not interested in offering any direction. (i feel like a dumb kid).

[Jim Koepke]

You may need to talk to a tax attorney.

Does the store where you worked still exist?

They should be able to supply you with a duplicate statement of earnings. This would be a starting point.

Were you declared as a dependent on your grandfather's taxes? This would help you a bit if you were. Some tax agents might see this as income and want you to pay, pay, pay.

You may owe the state where you worked also. Some states have a personal income tax, some do not.

Unless there is a tax attorney here on SMC, I would suggest you get the straight information by finding one in your area.

jim

[Robert gree]

ive been claimed by my mother since i was born.

[Joe Pelonio]

Your mother can claim you until you are 25 if she is in fact paying for most of your support, and in that case, it should be her tax records used by the
student loan people. When our kids were in college (recently) the forms had to include both parent and student tax information. It doesn't seem that unusual that as student has no tax records.

[Jim Koepke]

If you have been claimed as a dependent, your situation may be a little simpler.

You may need to file late for the time you did work. If there was taxes withheld from your wages.

I am not sure what the statue of limitations is on failure to file. Yes, they got the money through the withholding, but they still want the paper that is supposed to be due them.

It may only be three years on the statue so you won't have to worry if you can go another year.

Makes me think of the time when I first started working and I didn't bother to pay California Income Tax. Well of course after three years they found out. At that time I was not working and didn't have money. They kept sending me a bill for something like $150. I was near one of their offices one day and had a little extra cash that I wanted to give them. The person behind the counter told me I had to pay the whole bill. I explained that I seldom had that much at one time and would like to make a partial payment. They said I couldn't because they were not set up to take partial payments. I smiled and said, "great, now I can go out and spend the money and buy a few things." They told me to hold on. They pulled out a form and asked me how much I would be paying them today.

It is amazing how quickly a state agency can change their mind and practices when confronted with reason.

jim

[Paul Ryan]

I wouldn't worry too much this a common occurance for kids going to school and applying for financial aid. Yes, many kids have jobs but many also do odd jobs for cash here and there and don't have traceable income. I wouldn't worry too much. I am no CPA but as far as I understand unless you make over 10k you dont end up paying in any federal taxes, your refund would be all of what was deducted by the employer. Just tell them you dont have any W'2 and be honest. You wont get in any trouble if you are honest. When you start lieing and they catch you that is when you get into trouble.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

It would definitely be beneficial to get the opinion of a tax attorney.

[Curt Harms]

It would definitely be beneficial to get the opinion of a tax attorney.

Tax attorneys might be a little spendy and overkill for the situation. Any half competent accountant (PA/CPA) should be able to square you away and likely cost less.

[Stephen Tashiro]

Robert,
Clarify your description of what the student loan applications want. Do they want W-2 forms? or do they want tax returns? Tax returns don't have to have a W-2 form attached to them if you didn't get a salary.

[Charlie Reals]

Robert,
Clarify your description of what the student loan applications want. Do they want W-2 forms? or do they want tax returns? Tax returns don't have to have a W-2 form attached to them if you didn't get a salary.

My granddaughter has several student loans etc. She told me all that was ever asked was the tax form, never a w-2. No big as stated above.
Charlie

[Steve Friedman]

Robert. I am a tax attorney and will give you one piece of unsolicited advice:

STOP disclosing the facts in an open forum like this. There are probably IRS agents who do woodworking as a hobby too. Only discuss the facts with professional who can protect the confidentiality of your statements.

Go see a qualified CPA (not just a tax return preparer like H&R Block). If you really need a tax attorney (and I doubt it), the accountant will let you know.

SMC is probably a great place to get a CPA referral. What part of the country?

Steve

[Robert gree]

Good advice