سفارش تبلیغ
صبا ویژن

Can IRS Forgive Penalties?

For not filing and not paying taxes, the IRS has the most severe penalties

  • Penalty for failure to pay penalty — 56% on all penalties if you fail to pay taxes on time
  • Failure to File Penalty — 14% of all penalties imposed if you fail to file a return in time
  • Failure to Deposit Penalty — 4% of all penalties imposed on businesses that fail to pay their employment taxes on time or incorrectly

Can IRS Forgive Penalties?

The IRS will not remove penalties for these reasons

1. Statutory exception: Proving a specific, authoritative exclusion to the penalty

2. IRS error: Documenting the fact that the error resulted from IRS advice

3. Reasonable cause is a reason you can’t comply with the request based on your facts.

Additional guidance

  • Compliance: You must have filed all required returns (or extended the deadline for filing them) and you can’t have any outstanding requests for returns from the IRS.
  • Payment compliance — Must have paid all taxes due (can be made in installments if they are current).
  • Clear penalty history: There have been no previous penalties (except for a possible tax penalty) in the three preceding years.

Phone to request penalty abatement

Send a letter or mail to request a penalty reduction

Considerations

  • FTA is only applicable to one tax year/period. FTA does not apply to requests for penalty relief for multiple tax years/periods. If the FTA criteria are met, penalty relief will only be granted for the first tax year/period. All subsequent tax years/periods are subject to penalty relief based on other provisions such as reasonable cause criteria.
  • If the IRS has not assessed the penalty, then a client may file a late return, and fail-to-file or failure-to-pay penalties will apply. The taxpayer can attach a penalty request nonassertion to the late-filed returns.
  • To request a refund, a client who has already paid the penalty may file Form 833, Claim for Refund, or Request for Abatement.
  • Consider appealing to the Appeals if the IRS refuses to grant penalty relief. The appeals may reach a different conclusion based on other factors such as the hazards of litigation.
  • Although each case is unique, the CPA (client advocate), cannot request abatement for the client. With a simple telephone call or letter to IRS, clients can save thousands on penalties and rely on their tax professional for assistance.