Unpaid Taxes

My employer will be putting me in for a secret security clearance in approximately 45 days. After the secret clearance is approved, I will also be put in for a top secret clearance.

I have worked doing programming over the past ~2.5 years. I did it on sort of a freelance basis while in college. In the 2.5 years, I probably made between 1.5-2k, definitely not more than 2.5k. Due to my low pay, my dad had told me I did not need to submit taxes for this position, so I never did. However, during this time, I did submit taxes for a couple of other temporary jobs that provided me wth aW-2. While working on my SF-86 and figuring out how to enter this employment, I figured out (I think) that I owe taxes on these earnings as they count as ‘self-employment’ income and are taxed for SS and Medicare.

I plan to go through my old PayPal records over the next couple of weeks and file amended returns for the past 2.5 years. I’m not sure what the status of the amended returns will be though, when my clearance is being reviewed. I’m going to guess that they will not have been viewed at that point.

What I am wondering is, how will this affect my chance at getting a TS clearance? The mistake was unintentional and for a small amount and I will be filing amended returns to pay off these taxes. I’m hopin this won’t ruin my chances.

Also, I have used marijuana, but only on an experimental basis. I have not used it more than 6 times and the last time I used it was 3.5 - 4 years ago. I do not intend to use it ever again. From my review of the SF-86, I think that this is the only detrimental information I have to submit.

Thank you.

The unpaid taxes do not appear to be an issue based on your scenario because you have initiated action to resolve the discrepancy. The marijuana use is more serious, but depending on the circumstances and your age when used, can be mitigated by time since last used and your stated intent to not use again.