Will, a plumber who worked for himself from Houston did not file his tax returns. Last May, he lost his records in a flood, and had not found time to fret about it because his sub-contracting custom work was at last picking up. Luckily, the IRS had not seemed to notice, which gave Will an opportunity to ignore the his unfiled taxes completely.

Then, almost six months later, a notice sent by the IRS came in the mail. Will saw it and left it on top of the kitchen table with plans to take care of it later. However, his spouse was harassing him about finishing work in the garage and then a fresh client needed her addition finished immediately, and soon, the letter was hidden under a lot of papers that it had been forgotten about, Will had other tasks to try and do besides worry about how to file back taxes.

Months went by and business continued to prosper. The IRS began sending certified letters, but Will and his wife ignored the notices since they simply didn't have any time to take a look at them. Finally, Will decided to get a bookkeeper to work on his taxes for him, but he quickly lost track of any progress. The letters continued to show up in their mailbox, but Will was confused because he understood he had taken care of the problem.

Finally, Will picked up a notice on a Saturday morning to see what was going on. He was shocked to find out that the IRS said he now owed over $600,000 in back taxes. He read and reread the notice several times, but every time it said the same thing. Feeling sad, perplexed, and guilty, Will hid the letter upstairs, hoping that his angry wife wouldn't find it before he had an opportunity to take care of it.

Since Will had repeatedly neglected to file his tax returns, the IRS filed and prepared his tax returns and asserted he owed a lot more than he actually did. However, Will still had a chance. With a little tax help, his unfiled tax returns could be officially prepared by an actual tax lawyer and his missing books and records could be reconstructed. This would greatly reduce his total taxes owed and he might even find a way to negotiate his tax debt based on his limited capacity to pay.