<prompt> Human: Hi personalfinance, I know some of these questions might fit better in rtaxes, but its goes deep and I could really use some insight. My apologies for the length as this situation is rather complex. Two years ago I met the love of my life. Unfortunately, her family has had a rough go of it in recent years and I may be one of the only folks who can help them... help themselves. Most of this pertains to my future mother in law, well call her... Judy.3 years ago, Judys husband well call him Carl passed away from cancer. During their marriage, Carl was the primary bread winner, and overall handler of finances. He had life insurance, handled all the regular insurance, as well as taxes and most bills. Judy worked part-time, but with 3 kids one who is special needs, she was mostly a mom. After Carl passed, something very unfortunate came to light. The first was that Carl hadnt filed or paid taxes in close to 10 years. Additionally, there was no life insurance, they had been driving cars for years with no car insurance... I know right? Luckily, there wasnt much in the way of debt, but I have how that sits now.As for the current situation, its surprisingly not as bad as I would have thought. This month, Judy asked my SO and I to cover a bit of their rent that they were short on. It wasnt much 150, but I offered to take Judy out to lunch, crunch numbers with her and help her come up with a budget to keep stuff like this from happening in the future. My SO and I are financially stable, but were not in a position to be shelling out extra cash every month. I can handle working them through a manageable budget, but there is this dark cloud over their head. Judy is terrified of looking for regular work she currently watches a friends child during the day, making a moderate income, because she believes that the IRS will garnish her wages. They barely make it as it is, and getting a regular job, even a 10 per hr retail job, would make their situation infinitely better. She lives with and cares for my SOs special needs brother, though he is quite functional, even enough so to work part-time at a local grocery store. So, in the spirit of holiday cheer, this is my questions. How do I go about finding out what her actual status is with the IRS? Additionally, given the details above, any advice would help. Im pretty good with budgeting and taxes, but this is over my head. This is the biggest obstacle to making their future better and it would mean so much to us to be able to help them navigate this process. Thanks in advance to all of you, and happy holidays.Also, if you wanna drop a bunch of well they should have done this, or done that, it doesnt really help us in this scenario... so send it to me in a card.  <response>: As a general comment to people reading this post - if youre a stay at home parent or a spouse who lets my wife husband handle those things, read this as a cautionary tale. Its not trendy, fun, or worthy of applause to be poor and vulnerable. Dont tolerate this level of exposure, demand 9-10 times your spouses income in term life insurance and ensure that youve got a suitable level of insurance. She needs to get a job and talk to a CPA to get the tax issue resolved. Its better to self-report and due to the circumstances, there may be mitigation or amnesty programs shell qualify for. Ill let other posters comment on that. Youd need a power of attorney to deal with the IRS on her behalf. Otherwise, I think the best help you can give is to get her in touch with a no-nonsense CPA in town who has real experience with these issues. No HR Block or Tax Tigers! type places are suitable for her situation.This honestly isnt really a budgeting issue. She doesnt sound like shes got a real income. Personal finance only has two variables - money in and money out. She doesnt really have money coming in, there is a lot of money going out, and shes got a potential tax burden of unknown size that needs to be defined before it can be addressed. The short term steps are:1 Track spending with YNAB MINT; 2 Speak with a CPA CFP to address the tax liability; 3 Look at moving if the current house is too expensive. 