<prompt> Human: Some background: About 15 years ago I received a reasonably large inheritance a condo and 400K in investments at Schwab and Vangaurd. I tried to get things into a kind of set and forget mode the house is being rented with a property management company rental income is 2500mo before fees, mortgage is 1600, investment accounts are primarily in index funds, but I forgot it a bit too much.I didnt file income tax either CA or federal one year, probably 2009. I havent filed since then either, because it felt insurmountable and just gets worse with time.Now the Franchise Tax Board is garnishing my wages which arent much - around 32K, the IRS is sending certified letters, and I dont know how to begin escaping this. I dont even know how much I owe, or how if its even possible to negotiate that down. Im tempted to go to the IRS office and see if they can give me at least a summary or something, but I really dont know. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.  <response>: Do you have the documentation needed to file these past returns? If the IRS is sending letters, Im betting they have already prepared substitute returns for you and are trying to collect what they think you owe based solely on income documents they have such as W-2s and 1099s. Im also betting you probably dont owe what they think you do because they dont know your deductions. If you have the documentation, either prepare the returns yourself or get a good tax preparer I recommend and EA or CPA. This is not a huge problem, but you really need to get on it and tackle the problem. This will just continue to eat at you until its solved. I had a client come in to my office who hadnt paid in 20 years. We contacted the IRS and found out they didnt even care about any of the years except 3. We got transcripts because they didnt have the documentation and prepared the returns. The IRS was claiming they owed over 7000 for one year. We got it so they didnt owe anything. Dont fret over this any more. Just take care of it! If you owe, the CPA or EA should be able to help you with that as well. Not paying it, but arranging payment. 