Recently I have had problems with several of my Chapter 13 cases where the Chapter 13 trustee has objected to confirmation on the grounds that the debtor (my client) has one or more years of unfiled tax returns.
Because Chapter 13 cases must pay out in five years, unknown tax debt is a big problem. If your tax debt is unknown, it is impossible to create a repayment plan that pays out in five years since we don’t know exactly how much debt is involved in the case.
My client intake questionnaire specifically asks if there are any years where tax returns have not been filed. In each of these cases, my clients (three cases total) did not reveal any information about unfiled tax returns.,
If you have not filed tax returns, your Chapter 13 case can never be confirmed. Rather than misleading your lawyer, a better option is to acknowledge this issue and get working immediately on solving the problem. The IRS will provide you with W-2’s and 1099’s that you can use to prepare tax returns from previous years. IRS and Georgia DOR forms for previous years are widely available on the Interent and most tax preparers can prepare tax returns for previous years.