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My husband has an Alzheimer's diagnosis from this March 1016, but has been very adept at hiding his symptoms for some time. He has been self employed,until this past March, and I have just discovered he has not paid income taxes for one and maybe two years. He has always done our taxes, he was an auditor for the federal government, my background is nursing, so I never paid attention. Now, going through paperwork, I can see how he was struggling with financial issues. Do I have any recourse on the thousands of dollars owed the IRS?

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He had done estimated taxes many times and I knew about that, (me) just not paying attention because I didn't know that I needed to. I now control all finances, as he knows he is no longer able. He kept it close to himself that he was no longer comprehending finances. Now that i am going through records, it's clear he has been struggling with this for a long time. So sad to see a fine mind like that deteriorate right in front of you. Thanks to all for offering your ideas, and God bless.
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Mopsy, I'm wondering if he's still able to run his business. If not, and/or if the business isn't doing well b/c of his inability to manage it, it may also be that he won't have enough income to owe taxes. However, as others have advised, get professional accounting help to at least gain insight in his situation and that of his business.
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Gather up all the relevant documents and go see a reputable tax preparer. If there are taxes owed there will also be penalties and interest. Ask for a waiver of some penalties due to his disability. Try to provide some documentation. This is advice from a retired IRS employee. And don't ask his old co-workers to help out.
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You don't need a financial advisor to handle the taxes. How many CPAs do you think work for H&R Block.? Seriously. Anyhow, you do need someone to give you advice on the overall picture of the health of the business and how to stop a potential financial freefall. A CPA might have advice here. A "financial advisor" is most likely going to try and sell you something. Be careful.
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Yes, you get one of his auditor buddies, former co-workers, to help you.
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Mopsy: Perhaps explain to the IRS that your husband has AD, as you posted just above gardenartist's post? They may be a bit more lenient with the fines and such. Worth a try.
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Thanks for advice about asking for a waiver of some sort, I would not have know about that option. I have turned all tax papers over to H & R Block, don't know how
they will advise me. Maybe I need a financial advisor?
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CPA skills are not necessary to do the type of tax returns you are talking about. Nor is H &R Block likely to have a CPA working for them in their storefront locations. You have now mentioned a concern about staying in your home. Are you indicating that the loss of his extra income from the business and job as a sales rep will endanger your ability to dtay in your home? That's a different financial issue than the taxes.
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Mopsy- I've had great experience with H&R using their year round offices....the h&r offices that are geared to smaller businesses (do qrtly federal filings plus whatever biz filing your state(s) needs) and have staff there every day. The staff I've dealt seem to be retired IRS or big accounting firms retirees. The gal that now does my Inc & LLC at h&r was a forensic accountant for a big white shoe law firm that merged & downsized so she lost her job. Costs are more than fair IMO. Plus H&R has whatever is the latest changes to tax code. I'd suggest you pay the extra "piece of mind" charge if it's not included.

Have you been kinda hands off in his business?....it sounds like this is the case. If so and hubs has been slipping for a while undetected, and he has a business, I'd suggest you go through his credit and debit card use plus go through his email.He may have agreed without really understanding what would happen to auto-pay on all sorts of services. It could be smallish amounts too, like $ 10 -30 every month, so go below radar. Often these cascade to charges from "affiliated" companies. If he has anything with an website & domain name - so his email address is easily found- there are a lot of bottom feeders that send out a notice that appear to be a "bill" related to an one-off to the registered domain name. If he's had this happen, these scammers are pretty relentless and you probably just need to cancel the cc or debit card so they can't get any more payments auto deducted. If he has business bank accounts, you kinda need to get on monitoring cause biz accounts don't have the same time period for safeguards that personal accounts do to get $ credited back. Good luck & try not to get overwhelmed.
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Mopsy, based on your last post, just make sure that whoever you pick to help you knows about business taxes, especially losses and how to treat them. Given the declining revenue, there might be ways you can carry the losses forward and diminish what taxes might otherwise be owed.

I took a business accounting course a few decades ago and only have vague recollections, but the fact that the business is declining as was your husband's income from sales is something that a real business specialist should address to determine if there are any offsets as well as what value can be attached to the business if you want to sell it, which seems like a possibility as I think you have your hands full w/o running a business.

Good luck.
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