What should I do if I have not been filing tax returns?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Welcome back everybody. My name is Tom Olsen. The name of the show is "Olsen on Law", every Saturday at 11.00 AM right here on News 96.5 and my guest today is Dave McCarron. He's a CPA right here in Orlando and he's here to lend us his expertise with all of your tax questions. So Dave, occasionally, I'm sure people come to you and say, "Dave, I haven't filed tax returns in years." What would your advice to somebody like that be?

Dave McCarron: You know, it's amazing that there are quite a few people out there that are out of the system, that haven't been filing for years and typically that happens because they have a life event that they say, "My gosh, I can't file this year. I'm not ready. I have to wait." And then before you know it years go by and then they get kind of panicked that; "I'm not sure how to fix this." 

Attorney Tom Olsen: Alright.

Dave McCarron: So the best thing, the best advice I could give is to get back into the system, to get in compliance, file their tax return and a lot of times people are worried about paying the taxes due.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Right.

Dave McCarron: Well it's really a secondary issue because not filing a required tax return is actually a criminal offense that is prosecutable by jail. So the important thing is to go ahead and get your taxes filed and then if you owe money that's a separate issue altogether.

Attorney Tom Olsen: All right. So if there's somebody out there listening right now that says, "Hey, that's me. I haven't filed tax returns in years." How would they get a hold of you?

Dave McCarron: Sure. You could give me a call. Our phone number is 407-897-7050.