My employer wants me to fill out SF86 and get the process going. My first question is about the employment history going back 10 years. In parts of 2012 and 2013, I had a part time job, while in school, working for someone I knew being paid under the table (in cash) and I never reported that income on taxes. I believe I should be listing this time on the employment history, correct?
To help get the picture I’ll retell the events as best I can, but since this a while ago and I don’t have any records of it, some of the time lengths are a little fuzzy. The under the table job will be referred to as job A.
From 9/12 to 12/12, I was at job B.
From 8/12 and some time earlier, I was at job A. I’m not entirely sure how long this was. I want to say somewhere around 6 months.
After job B, I went back to job A from 1/13 to 3/13.
From 4/13 onward, I was still doing the same job working for my friend, but I was a W2 employee.
Not sure if it’s useful, but it was a part time job (around 15-20 hours per week) and in the beginning I was paid $8 and toward the end I was paid $10 per hour while at job A.
Now this brings me to my next question regarding section 26.3. How should I interpret “In the last 7 years”? Should that be the last 7 tax years so far which would be 2013-2019? I did file 2013 taxes and either paid any taxes or got a refund (I don’t remember which), but I didn’t report the income from 1/13 to 3/13. Does that count as not paying? Any insight would be helpful. Thanks.
Take the on the books/off the books out of the equation. The question pertains where you have worked, period. It makes no difference whether you paid taxes.
Look at it this way: if you report the employment in full (all the jobs, no mention of on/off books), there is an infinitesimally remote chance (nil, really) the tax issue will be revealed. Even if this does happen, it’s in the category of youthful indiscretion and thus a non-issue.
If you don’t report the jobs, and one of your references happen to mention them, your credibility comes into question.
I mainly explained the timeline as a lead up to the my second question about failing to file/pay taxes in the last 7 years in section 26.3 and how the unreported income affects that question. See my reply to cindelicato2 for some further comments.
Yes, I was planning on listing the under the table work.
I mainly explained the timeline as a lead up to the my second question about failing to file/pay taxes in the last 7 years in section 26.3 and how the unreported income affects that question.
Other replies indicate that the clock starts from the day I sign the form. Lets assume I sign it this month, 11/2020. So, 7 years ago would be 11/2013. Since then, I have never failed to file taxes or pay any taxes I should have. Is that interpretation consistent with other peoples interpretation?
I understand, and I just looked at my reply. I didn’t mean to imply it doesn’t matter if you paid taxes. I was just referring to the employment section. You could truthfully answer that in the past 7 years you have not failed to pay or file taxes. I don’t know what type of investigation you will be undergoing, but if it warrants an interview with an investigator, in the spirit of full disclosure, you may want to volunteer the information. Just a suggestion.