NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FEDERAL LAWYERS
How long can you go without filing taxes?
|Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek – and we have over 40 years of combined experience handling federal criminal cases, tax crimes, and cases that other firms won’t touch. You’ve probably heard about some of our work. Todd represented Anna Delvey in the case that became a Netflix series. We handled the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct case that made national headlines. We’ve defended clients in federal tax prosecutions across the country – and we know exactly what the IRS does when people don’t file returns.
If you’re asking how long you can go without filing taxes, you’re probably already behind. Maybe it’s been a year, maybe five years, maybe longer. The IRS doesn’t care about your reasons. What matters now is understanding what happens when you don’t file, how long the government can come after you, and what you need to do before this gets worse.
The Clock Never Starts Until You File
There’s no statute of limitations on unfiled tax returns. The normal three-year window people talk about? That only starts when you actually file a return. According to IRS statute of limitations rules, if you never file, the IRS has forever to assess taxes against you. Ten years from now, twenty years from now – doesn’t matter. They can pursue unfiled returns indefinitely.
The government isn’t going to forget about you. Your employer sends W-2s to the IRS. Your bank sends 1099s. Every payment processor, every stock sale, every bit of income gets reported. The IRS has all that information sitting in their system, waiting.
The IRS Will File a Return For You
Eventually, the IRS files a return for you – it’s called a Substitute for Return, or SFR. This is the worst possible version of your tax return. They file you as single even if you’re married. They give you the standard deduction and nothing else. No itemized deductions, no business expenses, no credits for your kids. The substitute return always inflates what you owe because they’re not working in your favor – they’re collecting revenue.
The Penalties Destroy You Financially
Failure to file carries a 5% penalty per month on unpaid taxes. It caps at 25%, but that cap hits fast – just five months. If you owe $50,000 and don’t file for five months, that’s $12,500 in penalties before any interest.
Then there’s the failure to pay penalty – another 0.5% per month on unpaid taxes. The IRS charges interest on both the tax and the penalties, compounded daily. For 2025, the interest rate is 7% – the federal short-term rate plus 3%. That interest never stops accruing until you pay the entire balance.
If your return is more than 60 days late, there’s a minimum penalty of $510 or 100% of the tax owed, whichever is less. The penalties alone can exceed the original tax you owed, especially if years go by.
Criminal Prosecution Has a Six-Year Window
Most people won’t face criminal charges for not filing. The IRS has to prove you willfully failed to file, meaning you knew you had a duty to file and intentionally didn’t. Forgetting doesn’t count. Being disorganized doesn’t count. Even owing money you can’t pay doesn’t make it criminal, as long as you file the return.
But if the IRS decides you’re evading taxes – hiding income, lying about your situation, deliberately not filing to avoid paying – they have six years from the due date to bring criminal charges. Misdemeanor failure to file charges carry up to a year in prison and $25,000 in fines. Felony tax evasion carries up to five years in prison and $100,000 in fines.
The IRS Criminal Investigation Division targets high-income individuals who owe substantial amounts, people who file fake returns repeatedly, and so-called “tax protesters” who refuse to file on principle. In 2025, the IRS announced an initiative targeting 125,000 high-income non-filers – people making over $400,000 who haven’t filed since 2017. Over 25,000 of those cases involve millionaires. If you’re in that category, you’re on their radar.
2025 Enforcement Is More Aggressive Than Ever
The government isn’t slowing down – they’re ramping up. Thanks to funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS is using artificial intelligence to identify non-filers and track unpaid taxes. They’ve already recovered $520 million from high-income individuals who failed to file or pay. The days of flying under the radar because the IRS didn’t have the resources to notice you – those days are over.
Collection actions come fast once the IRS decides to move. Wage garnishment takes up to 25% of your paycheck. Bank levies freeze your accounts. Federal tax liens destroy your credit and make it nearly impossible to sell property or get financing. None of that requires going to court – the IRS has administrative authority to take your money without a judge’s permission.
Filing Now Stops Most of the Damage
You can’t make this go away by waiting. Filing your own returns – even years late – lets you claim the deductions and credits you’re entitled to. Your tax bill will be what you actually owe, not the inflated number the IRS would calculate.
If you can’t pay what you owe, filing still matters. The IRS offers installment agreements, offers in compromise, currently not collectible status – but none of those options are available until you’ve filed all required returns. The failure to file penalty is ten times worse than the failure to pay penalty. Once you file, the statute of limitations on collection starts – the IRS generally has ten years from the assessment date to collect. That clock never starts if you never file.
We Handle Federal Tax Crimes Every Day
At Spodek Law Group, we represent clients facing IRS criminal investigations, tax evasion charges, and civil enforcement actions across the country. We’ve defended high-net-worth individuals, business owners who got behind on payroll taxes, people who didn’t file for a decade and panicked when the IRS finally noticed. We know how federal prosecutors build these cases – some of our attorneys are former federal prosecutors who used to work on the government’s side.
If you’re already under investigation, talking to the IRS without a lawyer is the worst thing you can do. Anything you say will be used to build a case against you. If they’re asking questions, they already have evidence – they’re trying to get you to fill in the gaps or contradict yourself. We step in before that happens, communicate with the IRS on your behalf, and negotiate outcomes that minimize criminal exposure and financial damage.
The reality is simple. You can’t hide from the IRS forever, and waiting only makes this worse. Every month you don’t file, penalties pile up. Every year that passes, your options narrow. The government has unlimited time to pursue unfiled returns, but you don’t have unlimited time to fix this before enforcement begins. If you’re behind on filing taxes – whether it’s one year or ten years – the time to deal with it is now, before the IRS makes the first move.