John’s spiritual recovery network brought him to Helping Up Mission for our 12-month residential Spiritual Recovery Program. And he was ready to start making some life changes.
Struggling with drugs for over 2 decades, he still managed to keep working. But John knew it’s been 10 years since he last filed income tax and figured he owed on about $300,000 of income.
Every year about this time he’d think about filing but would decide it was just easier to forget about it and keep getting high. The next year it would happen again – and he knew it was only getting worse. But John felt trapped and continued the cycle.
So, now clean for 5 months and addressing many other issues in his life, John needed to face this one, too. Yesterday he called the IRS and told the lady on the phone he was in a year-long drug and alcohol recovery program and would be eligible to go to work again soon. He also admitted he hadn’t filed for a decade.
The lady was very nice and even congratulated him for getting his life back on track. In fact, she said they appreciate hearing from people like him!
John gave her his data and she pulled up his information. He was right, it’s been 10 years – but he hadn’t made nearly as much income as he thought he had!
In fact, she said half of it was filed with W-2s – meaning he already paid taxes on it. The other half was on 1099s and he owed – but he might get a lot of that amount back in refunds from his W-2 filings.
As they say in recovery – we’re only as sick as our secrets. John’s made commitments to do the right thing…and what do you know – it’s working!
One Day at a Time,
Pastor Gary Byers
Deputy Director