I married without knowing my wife's not doing taxes for few years prior. She's playing catch up. It's now been 6 years since I've been able to file. What can I do?

[sljensen]

When I tried filing in 2015, my return was rejected because I did Not know she had not done her taxes. I'm afraid the IRS will come back at me for evasion or I won't be able to catch up myself.

[xmasbaby0 · Accepted solution]

What?   So since you discovered that your wife was behind in filing/paying taxes you just stopped filing, too?   At this point it would be better for both of you to seek local paid tax help to sort out a big mess like this.   There are things you certainly could have been doing differently all along that would have been much smarter and better choices than just not filing.   You need to get it caught up asap.   You could have been filing as an injured spouse to protect your portion of the refund.   But now you have forfeited any possible tax refunds for any years earlier than 2018.   And if you owe tax then your penalties and interest have been adding up for years.

This is not a do-it-yourself project at this point, so I for one am not even going to tell you about ways to try this yourself.  Get to a tax professional, the sooner the better.

What if I do not file my tax return?

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2572308-what-happens-if-i-don-t-file-my-taxes

[Critter-3]

Not sure what you are asking about ... if you (or both of you)  have not filed prior year returns and you were required to file then get those returns done and mailed in ASAP as the penalties and interest will continue to accumulate.  If you have refunds and you file a joint return then you need to file an injured spouse form with the return so that your portion of any refund on the return will not be taken  ... FYI  refunds for 2017 or earlier have now been forfeited. 

[sljensen]

We did hire tax help. But, this is the First I've heard about filing Injured spouse. I was told that her taxes had to be caught up on before I could do mine. What the hell, i'm asking now.. and kicking myself in the butt. I am not a tax expert at all. And 1040A with the few deductibles was all I did every year. When my taxes in 2015 got kicked back because of lack of her tax information, that's when we went to a professional accountant.. Stupid me for believing them and waiting this long.

They keep telling us that her taxes are tied up in the long process, waiting to be reviewed along with tens of thousands on semi trucks at the IRS. Naive, Yes. 

Changing professionals this week.

[sljensen]

I did not know that I could file Injured Spouse while she was playing catch up. She was behind because of her ex-husband. I didn't know that until I filed my taxes 6 months after we were married and they got kicked back because she hadn't filed in a few years. We went to an accountant who Never mentioned anything to us about Injured Spouse. Then... He died, and his work went to his partner, who has been stating that the tax returns are being held up at the IRS (too much paper work and not enough workers). Kicking myself in the butt now, as I now know I've lost 4 years of returns. I haven't had to pay for close to 15 years with my tax credits. But, Now. Who knows. I'll probably be penalized for her back taxes.

Regrets...