Consequences of not filing your taxes by the due date
There might be no, mild or severe consequences of not filing your taxes on time. It usually depends whether you are required to file or not and whether you owe to the IRS or not. When it comes to taxes it is better do not guess and take chances on your hard earned money. If you are not sure about any tax related question it is usually better to ask a tax professional to clarify something for you. It is especially the case if you need to know whether you required to file or not and what consequences will be in either case.
No consequences for failure to do your taxes
If you do not file your taxes and do not owe to the IRS there won’t be any penalties or interest. For instance, if the standard deduction and exemption is less than your earning and you have some tax on your tax return you must file even if you expect to get a refund. In case you did not file because your refund is so small that it won’t cover even tax service company’s fees then you would probably won’t have any consequences because you are not owe to the IRS and you are not afraid of losing your refund either because there is nothing pretty much to lose anyway.
Mild consequences of not doing your taxes on time
You might be in disadvantage if you opt not to file tax returns when you should do so. For example, if you want to become a tax professional you will not be granted PTIN before you file all the returns that you should’ve filed even if you do not owe to the IRS anything. In addition, some companies check employees’ backgrounds of certain professions like whether they not owe anything to the IRS. This mild consequence might prevent you from getting a job or keeping the old one.
In case you failed to do your taxes in the first year for any reason, you still need to file later anyway because you might lose the chance of getting the refund at least some day. This is because you may claim your refunds only up to 3 years back.
Severe consequences of not filing taxes on time
In case you did not file your tax return by the due date which is April 15th and you owed to the IRS the penalties and interest might apply to you for the tax year. On irs.gov you can read that if you did not file, but had to then file as soon as possible because it is in your best interest. The longer you wait and do not file your taxes the more money you will have to repay. Therefore, it is better to contact directly the IRS if you have some questions, concerns or issues about your taxes. They might work with you and offer some payment installments.