About BackYears

What does BackYears do?

People who haven't filed for a while often don't know who to ask, and worry about being judged when they do. BackYears gives them a calm first step. It does three things:

1. Asks a few questions about the years you haven't filed. It takes about two minutes and never asks for your SSN.
2. Gives you a free, plain-English page of next steps for your situation, with links to the IRS's own pages.
3. If you tick the box to say yes, introduces you to one vetted CPA, Enrolled Agent or tax attorney who offers a flat price for catching up every missing year. You pay them directly, at the price they set and publish.

BackYears is free for you, and you can stop at step 2. Nobody contacts you unless you ask.

Who runs BackYears?

BackYears is operated by Quixta Ventures LLP, based in India. We build the questions, write the guides, check partner firms and make the introductions.

The tax work itself is done by licensed US professionals: CPAs, Enrolled Agents and tax attorneys. They run their own firms, set their own prices and work with you directly. That split is deliberate. We stay on the side of information and introductions, and leave preparing returns and giving advice to the people licensed to do it.

How do we check partner firms?

A firm can't receive introductions until we have done all of this:

• Checked the credential by hand: the state CPA board lookup for CPAs, IRS Enrolled Agent status for EAs, or the state bar lookup for attorneys.
• Signed a written partner agreement that covers the states and tax years they handle and how many introductions they can take.
• Marked the firm active. Firms that are full for the month are skipped.

That is what we mean by “vetted”. We don't review a firm's work, advice or prices, and we don't recommend one firm over another.

You can see the firms on our partners page, along with exactly what we share with them and when. The IRS also has advice on choosing a tax professional(IRS.gov), opens in a new tab, which is worth reading whoever you work with.

How do we write our guides?

Our guides and situation pages are written by the BackYears editorial team. We follow the same rules on every page:

• Every statement about IRS rules links to the IRS.gov page it comes from, and each page lists its sources.
• Each page opens with a short answer, then explains it in plain English.
• Each page shows the date it was published and the date we last checked it against its sources.
• Pages say “Not yet reviewed by a tax professional” until a licensed partner has reviewed them. When one has, we name them on the page.
• Examples with numbers are labelled as estimates. We never promise an outcome.

Spotted something wrong or out of date? Email support@backyears.com and we'll check it against the source.

What happens to my answers?

We keep them to send you your next steps. They go to a partner only if you tick the sharing box, which is never ticked for you, and the partner sees your contact details only after they accept. You can ask us to delete your data at any time. The privacy policy has the details.