Can anyone offer any advice on my tax situation?

This is a long story, but here goes… I moved from Kentucky to California in early 2017. I was working at a restaurant and came into some financial hardships and could barely afford my bills. A coworker at that restaurant said he had an idea of how to help me. He changed the withholdings on my taxes on my ADP account (the company that did the payroll there) to where no taxes were being taken out of my check. So I was getting more money on my paychecks.

I was young and dumb and didn’t think much of it, and was excited to see more money each paycheck. Little did I know, when I filed taxes for that year, I owed a little under $2000. I did not have the money to pay that, I was living paycheck to paycheck and barely surviving as is. I never even set up a payment plan with the IRS (which I now understand was stupid on my part, but like I said, I was young and dumb). I had never even owed taxes before. Every year I filed previously, l would always get money back, so this was new to me.

I was still working at the same restaurant so I fixed the issue with my withholdings. The following year I filed and I was owed money (approximately $2000). I was expecting that check and it never came. Since it never came, I assumed that the IRS just kept it because of the money I had owed the previous year, that and they were basically “calling it even”. I filed again the next year and was owed money again, approximately $2000. Once cagain I was expecting that check and it never came.

So to back track, I owed a little under $2000 for 2017, that I never paid. Filed for 2018, was owed a little over $2000, that I never received. I filed for 2019 and was again owed a little over $2000 that I never received. Then 2020 hit and that same restaurant that I was working at closed down due to the pandemic and I went on unemployment for about 6 months.

I then started working a dental office. I filed for 2020 and I was owed money again, this time it was only about $1000. Yet again, I never received that check. In the summer of 2021 I received a letter from IRS stating I owed approximately $3500 for never paying the taxes I owed in 2017. This was including interest and penalties. It made no mention of the approximate $5000 I was owed over the last few years, that was never sent to me.

I tried calling the IRS on a few occasions, to try to rectify this and could never speak to a live human. It was infuriating to say the least. I’m not proud to admit this but I gave up and it was pretty much out of site, out of mind. I had always just filed using Turbox tax in previous years and in early 2022 when I was going to file for 2021 (after having received that letter about 6 months prior).

I attempted to hire a CPA to see if they could help me out. It was a guy that did it out of his home that was recommended to me by a friend. When I explained my situation to him, he wanted to charge me $1500 to help figure it all out. I was still struggling financially because California was outrageously expensive and I simply could not afford that. I ended up filing with TurboTax again for the year of 2021. I once again was owed money, that I never received.

I did the same thing again for the year of 2022 and was owed money and never received it. I started getting fed up with paying to file my taxes, being told I was owed money and never receiving it; So I just didn’t file for 2023. I moved back to Kentucky in 2024. When it was time to file for 2024 I just didn’t do it. I was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do since I didn’t file the year before.

2023 was the first time in my working history I never filed, and now I’ve gone 2 years without filing. Since its the beginning of tax season I want to file for 2025. I want to clear this all up. I am doing much better financially since moving back to Kentucky. The cost of living is significantly cheaper and I’m making decent money at my job. I feel less anxious about paying someone to help me figure this out. Even though I really don’t want to pay thousands of dollars to do so, but I’ll do what I have to do.

I don’t really know where to begin though. I feel like trying to call the IRS to figure it out is useless. I’ve tried calling them in the past and never got to speak to a live person and got nowhere. Should I go to some place like H&R Block? Should I look for a certain type of accountant or CPA?

I’m not sure how this works, being that I owe them money, but they also owe me money? Does the IRS expect me to pay off my balance first and then they’ll give me my back pay? Can they just take what I owe them off of what they owe me? Did not paying them what I owed them in 2017, somehow mean I forfeited what they owed me every year after that? I hope that’s not the case considering I worked legitimate jobs and taxes were paying taken out of my check every paycheck. I just have so many questions and would love any advice. Thanks in advance, and I’m sorry for the long post.