I was in prison from 2022 to 2024. Am I supposed to file for those years?

Hi Ryanshive,

You would file a 2024 tax return to claim just your 2024 income. If you need to file a 2022 and 2023 tax return, you will report the income for those years separately. If you go to our homepage, you can click the "Prior Year" link at the top of the page to log into our software for each prior year you need to file.

You will typically be required to file a tax return for a particular year if your income was above the standard deduction for your filing status or if you had self-employment income over $400.

This interactive IRS tool can be used to help you determine which years you need to file returns for.

Please note that filing a tax return can be a good idea, even if you are not required to do so. For example, you may end up getting an unexpected refund. It can also help protect your SSN from being used in fraudulent tax returns.

Also note that if you made income for work performed while incarcerated, you'll report this income as shown on your W-2 as normal. However, that income is not to be used in the calculation for the Earned Income Credit (EIC) and would need to be subtracted as an adjustment specifically for the EIC. If you have incarceration income that needs to be subtracted for the calculation of the EIC, please note that our software does not have a way to do this at this time.