People often wonder what happens if you do not file your tax returns. Josh Kornbluth lived it.
For seven years in the 1990s - while he was struggling to make it as an autobiographical monologist -- Kornbluth, now 57, simply neglected to file.
Life started to get complicated when he got a little bit of success: a film on its way to the Sundance Film Festival which was going to bring in some real money, and a girlfriend who wanted to get married before their baby arrived.
As befits his artistic medium, Kornbluth made a film all about it, with his frequent collaborator (and younger brother) Jason Kornbluth. "Love & Taxes" opens in theaters in New York on Friday and later in other cities (http://loveandtaxesmovie.com/).
Josh Kornbluth spoke with Reuters about his struggles to get right with his taxes:
Q: Did you make a conscious decision not to file, or did it just sort of happen?
A: I had my first job at a newspaper as a copy editor. Around the third year, I started to freelance. I was told to file a Schedule C and itemize. My circuits overloaded. I didn't file for the next seven years.
Q: Did you worry about not filing?
A: The first time, I got very nervous. But then I noticed that nothing happened to me. The next day after I didn't file was the same as the day before. It just became sort of a habit not to file. There seemed to be no repercussions...until I fell in love.
Q: If not for your future wife encouraging you to fix the problem, do you think you would have just continued?