My husband never filed his 2006 tax return and obviously needs to. We gave all his information to a friend/accountant who has literally gone AWOL and will not return calls, etc...and won't return his paperwork! He's an artist so in that paperwork were all his deductions for that year, etc... gone.

The IRS almost certainly owes HIM money from that year, so it's not like he owes them big money. But I'm afraid of getting into trouble and I'm not sure what to do.

Does anyone have advice?

You can go to the nearest IRS office and request a transcript for the 2006 tax year. This will enable you to obtain all the tax information that has been provided to the IRS by any 3rd party. This information would include 1099-Interest income, 1099-Misc Income, W-2 information, Property taxes paid, any mortgage interest paid to a financial institution and any estimated taxes paid to the IRS.

Now, I am not sure what other missing information has been retained by the old accountant. I suggest that you immediately retain a CPA and have him or her attempt to reconstruct your 2006 Profit and Loss Statement from information obtained from your 2006 Bank Statements. If there were cash transactions for which you have lost your receipts, I suggest that you use some reasonable estimates and have your accountant determine whether these estimates are reasonable or not.

The best thing you can do is to attempt to file this tax return using best estimates and the IRS will accept these under the circumstances that you have found yourself. Your CPA will be familiar with similar situations and will be able to guide you in the right direction.

I suggest that you should not panic and be overly concerned, as any CPA with some years of experience can be of great assistance to you and will be able to prepare your 2006 Tax Return!

Good Luck!!

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