My daughter hasn't filed for 3 years & doesn't know what to do about it. She might have made a couple thousand each of those years. Does she still have to file?

[rjcmv]

That's it. What should she do? Rosalie

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

The income needed to be required to file a tax return depends on a person's overall situation -- if they are a dependent of someone else or not, and what kind of income they have (self employment, W-2 employee wages, investments).  Review pages 3-7 here https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

or use this online interactive guide https://www.irs.gov/uac/do-i-need-to-file-a-tax-return

If your daughter is required to file a return, or is not required but wants to file a return to get a refund of any withholding, you will either need to purchase a copy of Turbotax for each year, and install it on your Mac or PC (from the turbotax home page, look at the bottom for "past year products"); or, download the correct forms and instructions for each year from the IRS web site and do it by hand.  https://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/priorFormPublication.html

If she is single with no dependents, she can probably use the 1040-EZ which is actually pretty easy.

Turbotax online is not available for 2016 yet.  When it is, she might qualify to file for free.  For 2015 and earlier, the only turbotax available is Turbotax Deluxe to buy as a downloadable installer and install on your own computer.

[SweetieJean]

Was she a W-2 employee, or self-employed (cash or 1099-MISC)?