You may think tax preparation is straightforward. Well, taxestell a story of people's lives, and people's lives arenever straightforward. So get ready to sort through somecrazy drama to deliver good tax advice. To get started, here is anactual tax-related write-in from the official Dear Abby column

I have just learned that my sister's husband of 35 years (I'llcall him George) hasn't filed their personal income taxes goingback a number of years. This has caused a lot of stress and anxietyfor my sister, who recently underwent breast cancer treatment.Apparently, he hasn't filed because of his inability to organize.(His family has denial issues.)

Their professional tax preparer has met with both of them andtried to work out a step-by-step program, but George consistentlyfails to meet the deadlines. I love my sister and want to be assupportive as possible, but I'm unsure what I can do. I haveadvised her to seek therapy. She has copies of business-relateddocuments relating to the unfiled tax periods, but not enoughinformation to file on her own.

On top of everything else, she has several relationship issueswith her children that are causing her grief. What else can I do?—HELPLESS BIG BROTHER (Van Buren, 2015)

Reply to Helpless Big Brother in the guise of DearTabby. If this were your friend, what advice would you givehim? In order to provide sound advice, you must includetax code(s) you examined to arrive at your conclusion.