<prompt> Human: The details: My sister has two kids and a spouse. Her husband is the only one working, though they technically operate a small business, together. They do independent contract work so there is nothing withheld from their paycheck. Its been that way for five years. My sister hasnt worked for three years. They owe about 150K in back taxes, because, my sister says, her husband was unemployed for nine months five years ago. They were in fear of losing their house, so when he started getting the contract work again, they focused on catching up with their mortgage. They are just now getting caught up with it, but they havent paid their income taxes for the past three years.She claims their bills are around 15,000 a month. That seems extremely high to me. And makes me think they should be able to trim the fat in some places. Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. I just dont get how someone who misses just nine months of work, but makes 150K a year can get that behind on taxes. They do pay for a lot of his mothers bills, but it just boggles my mind how they could be so far in the hole.In doing some research on other redditors questions, I noticed advice about filing your taxes even when you knew you couldnt pay. I dont think they made that effort, not thinking it would help. So I wonder if that made penalties even more severe.  <response>: bills are around 15,000 a monthWhat? If they are spending 15kmonth 180kyear they should have no problems trimming their budget and paying that off easily. but makes 150K a yearSo they make 150k pretax so probably around 90-100k after tax but are spending 180kyear. No wonder they are so deep in debt. They are spending more than they earn even before taking the taxes into account.They need to get on a strict budget and a payment plan with the IRS. 