Hi folks, looking for a bit of advice in an area that seems to be swamped with less than reputable 'professionals'.
To start with, my dad's a vet, and a remarkable DIY sort of person (stubbornly so, really. Guess that's where I get it from). Due to being a single parent in the military, his taxes used to be a bit complex, and an accountant used to file all of his returns for him. This accountant died about a decade ago and he started doing it himself.
Being stubbornly DIY, any time he came to a year that he ran into issues with (the math not seeming to add up, etc), he'd put it to the side to revisit later. Fast forward to this year - he received a notice from the IRS stating he owed money for 2017. He immediately issued them a check for the amount specified, but being unsure exactly where to send it, he called them directly, at which point they 'discovered' several other missing years and demanded that all back tax info be submitted within 30 days.
He has most information required, but is missing some related to his military retirement pay, which is proving difficult to obtain quickly. If he needs an extension to get these records, what is the process of getting one from the IRS, and if he is looking (currently) at around $6k in back taxes, is it worth getting outside help with? I've already told him to ignore any radio ads for tax help, because I'm sure that they can't be good.
This is an arena I've got no experience in, so any advice is appreciated.
Submitted November 30, 2019 at 05:17PM by ahelpfullthrowaway https://ift.tt/2P0pKvO
