The Ramsey Show Highlights "We Haven't Filed Taxes Since 2020"
Mar 25, 2026
Caller, a stay-at-home mom who co-owns her husband’s small business, shares their years without filing taxes and recent family recovery from alcoholism. The conversation covers legal risks of not filing, how to reconstruct missing tax years, issues around ownership and 1099s, identity theft protection, and practical next steps for hiring a tax preparer and getting back on track.
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Alcoholism Led Family To Stop Filing Taxes
- Caller describes 20 years of her husband's alcoholism that caused them to stop filing taxes since 2020.
- She reports he is now three years sober, his business is thriving, but unfiled returns remain a looming legal threat.
File Missing Tax Returns Immediately
- Do file your missing tax returns immediately to avoid criminal exposure for failure to file.
- Dave Ramsey urges reconstructing the last 3–4 years of returns and getting a Ramsey trusted tax preparer to submit them right away.
Failure To File Carries Criminal Risk
- Failure to file is criminally prosecuted while failure to pay is typically civil, so the legal stakes differ dramatically.
- Dave Ramsey highlights about 2,500–3,000 yearly prosecutions for failure to file versus rare jail for nonpayment alone.