<prompt> Human: About 8 years ago, when I was 22, I moved abroad and started teaching English under the table. Since then, Ive only ever been back 4 times. During my most recent trip back, I saw a letter for me which was some type of tax related document saying I owed a pretty decent amount over 4,500 and I decided that Id take care of it when I come back at the end of this year.I do have a foreign bank account, but have never had more than 3,000USD in it at a time. Ive never had an official work permit because my employer didnt want to pay the taxes, so Ive been paid under the table this entire time and there is no documentation of the work I have done or the income I have received.Ive finally decided to be responsible and take care of this and I am a bit worried as to how much trouble I am actually in. I dont know which forms I am to use or what to do in general for that matter. Im even skeptical as to whether or not I actually owe the amount they are saying I owe, considering I have technically had 0 income for the past 8 years.I was hoping someone here could give me some advice. Thanks in advance!  <response>: The US has something called a Foreign Earned Income Exclusion that allows you to consider up to a certain amount of money you earned while you were abroad to be not taxable. See Form 2555.But youre still supposed to file for every year, even though you wouldnt owe taxes.So it is possible that you dont really owe taxes for the time you were abroad from age 22 to 30. I dont know if the failure to file penalty applies if you dont actually owe taxes.You should find out what the IRS has on file for your taxes for those years. In some cases, if they dont receive a filing, they fill out one for you called a SFR Substitute For Return and perhaps that could be the reason for the error in what they think you owe, if what they filled out is inaccurate.You will probably have to use snail mail to request the transcript of SFRs that IRS has prepared. See Form 4506-T.I am not absolutely sure if SFR info gets sent to you if you request a transcript, but the above seems to be the direction you should go to get a better picture of why the IRS is claiming you owe. Of course, if you really do owe 4500 from an earlier year, then youll have to pay.This page from IRS also has some useful information about what to do if you received a CP3219 Notice of Deficiency: I wonder if perhaps you need the help of a CPA with tax expertise or an Enrolled Agent to help you sort out your action steps in the most airtight way? I am usually a proponent of do it yourself but this may be an instance where getting things cleared up might be facilitated by a professional. 