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So you owe the IRS a lot of money? Here’s what to do.

This doesn’t mean you did anything wrong — and there are plenty of ways to dig yourself out.

Warm temps and patio happy hours are on the horizon, so you know what that means: It’s time to play the IRS’s favorite twisted (and forced) guessing game: We’re going to make you figure out how much you owe us in taxes, even though we already know!

If you aren’t super financially savvy — which, if you graduated from the US school system, where learning to square dance took precedence over financial literacy, might be the case — that lack of knowing might feel anxiety-inducing. And if you discover you actually owe the IRS an eye-popping amount of money, this stress can quickly turn suffocating.

If that’s the case for you this year, know that you’re not alone, Lee Frisari, a New York City-based tax adviser and co-founder of Hell Yeah Taxes, tells Vox. “The tax system is broken in ways that burn people for doing well and burn them for struggling,” he says. “Everybody’s navigating their own version of the same fight.”

Importantly, Frisari adds, getting a hefty tax bill doesn’t mean you did anything wrong — and there are plenty of ways to dig yourself out. Here’s exactly what to do if you owe a lot to the IRS this year.

1) Do absolutely nothing for a few days

If the IRS is demanding that you pay a four — or, gasp, five! — figure amount, you might start to panic. That’s a completely normal, human reaction, Aja Evans, a New York City-based financial therapist, tells Vox. Money worries can invoke something very primal within us, because it’s so closely tied to our sense of safety and security. “I want to know that I can take care of my kids or my aging parents. … If you do not have the money to do that, that is very triggering,” Evans says.

(By the way, if your immediate fear is that you’re going to be carted off in handcuffs, know that there’s an extremely slim chance you’d go to jail over all this, Frisari says. “The IRS doesn’t want to destroy lives; it wants its share,” he says. “There are so many steps and opportunities to course-correct before it ever gets there.”)

Evans says that getting a hold of your emotions before making any big decisions about how you’ll pay what you owe is absolutely crucial. “Please,........

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