It's complicated. I didn't file taxes the first year after my divorce. (clueless at that time) That year I received a big divorce settlement and of course I owed taxes on that which I didn't pay because I didn't file. Instead I put my head in the sand. And drank. And spent the money. The letters came, I didn't open them. I managed to file the next year, and the next. The letters kept coming and I couldn't bring myself to open them because I knew how much trouble I was in, so it was like, don't open them and everything is fine. And there was just so much chaos going on in my life at that time because of my drinking that the IRS seemed less important than I realized. It was the collectors calling me that got my attention, as was my landlord knocking on my door, eviction notice in hand, my ex husband threatening to take me back to court to make sure I never saw my children again. It was the hangovers. The blackouts. But through it all I managed to stay gainfully employed in my chosen career field. But I guess you can only juggle all of that for so long before something goes wrong.