Individuals & sole proprietors
Wages, retirement, investments, rentals, Schedule C business income and self-employment tax.
Years of tax returns missing?
The problem gets harder—not safer—the longer it sits.
Unfiled returns can block refunds, delay loans, trigger IRS estimates and prevent most tax-resolution options. Kōkua Tax finds what is missing, rebuilds the records and gets you filed correctly before the government decides the numbers for you.
Local Enrolled Agents · Individuals and businesses · No mainland call-center handoff
Cannot pay everything?
File anyway. The IRS says past-due returns should be filed even when the balance cannot be paid in full.
Official IRS guidance →First question
What is actually missing?
“I have not filed in years” can mean one personal return—or a chain of individual, business, payroll and Hawaiʻi filings. Filing the wrong form first can create inconsistent numbers and more notices.
Corporations & partnerships
Entity returns, shareholder or partner reporting, K-1s and penalties that may apply even when the entity owes no income tax.
Employers
Missing payroll returns and trust-fund taxes require immediate attention because responsible individuals may face personal assessment.
State income, GET & TAT
Federal filing does not correct missing Hawaiʻi income, General Excise Tax or rental-tax returns.
Substitute for return
The IRS estimate is not your tax return.
If a taxpayer does not file voluntarily, the IRS may prepare a proposed substitute return using information it has. The IRS warns that this calculation may not give credit for deductions and exemptions the taxpayer could claim.
A CP3219N gives a limited window—generally 90 days—to file the missing return or petition the U.S. Tax Court. If neither happens, the IRS can assess its proposed amount and begin collection.
IRS: Filing past-due tax returns →- W-2 and 1099 income reported by others
- Little or no business-expense support
- No election between available filing positions
- A balance that can move into collection
- Allowable deductions and credits
- Dependents and filing status
- Business cost records and basis
- The actual tax supported by the facts
The “six-year rule”
Six years is a starting point—not permission to forget the rest.
IRS collection policy normally limits delinquent-return enforcement to about six years. But the IRS may require more or fewer years based on the facts, prior noncompliance, expected tax and other circumstances.
Read the IRS Internal Revenue Manual →What delay can cost
Nonfiling affects more than the tax bill.
Penalties and interest
Individual failure-to-file penalties generally run 5% of unpaid tax per month up to 25%. Failure-to-pay penalties and interest can continue separately.
Lost refunds
The IRS warns that a refund generally must be claimed within three years of the return due date. Waiting can turn money owed to you into money permanently lost.
Forced assessment
An IRS substitute return can become an assessed balance, followed by liens, wage or bank levies and other collection action.
Blocked resolution
Installment agreements, currently-not-collectible status and offers in compromise generally require current filing compliance first.
Missing documents are not the end
We rebuild the tax story from records that still exist.
People often delay because a business closed, a preparer disappeared or boxes of records are incomplete. Kōkua starts with the government’s records, identifies the gaps and builds a defensible return from the best available support.
Why Kōkua Tax
Getting filed is only half the job.
A return-preparation service may produce forms. A national relief company may sell a settlement before the returns exist. Kōkua coordinates the filing work with the resolution that must follow—here in Hawaiʻi, with professionals you can reach.
We look at IRS and DOTAX records to see what was filed, assessed and paid.
Federal income returns may connect to Hawaiʻi income, GET, TAT and county accounts.
Payroll filings, active deadlines and substitute-return notices move to the front.
The goal is not a stack of returns. It is filing compliance followed by a workable resolution.
Official sources
Read the rules behind the guidance.
The first step is finding the real gap
Let’s determine what is missing—and what the government already did.
Give Kōkua Tax 15 minutes to understand the years, entities and notices involved. We will explain how urgent it appears and what must happen before a resolution can begin.
Schedule my free 15-minute call(808) 565-8244Free · Confidential · Local Enrolled Agents
General educational information only; not legal or tax advice. Filing requirements, penalty relief and the number of delinquent years required depend on the taxpayer’s facts and government account history.