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How to Remove IRS Penalties

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If you have been assessed a penalty by the IRS, do not panic. There are ways you can reduce or even remove the penalty altogether. The key is to know how to ask the IRS for penalty relief.


When you receive an IRS penalty, it is important to first understand why exactly it has been incurred. There is the Failure to Pay penalty, which occurs when you do not fully pay your tax obligation by the due date (March 15th or April 15th depending on the type of tax return). The penalty is 0.5% of the unpaid tax owed every month the tax goes unpaid. A more severe penalty is the Failure to File. This one occurs when you do not file your tax return on time. This penalty is 5% of the unpaid tax owed every month it is not correctly filed.


These penalties can add up and cause financial stress if not resolved. The best practice is to avoid them by filing and paying your tax obligation on time, but if that is not possible, then there are methods to have the penalties reduced or even forgiven by the IRS. All you have to do is call.


When you call the IRS, your best bet to have the penalty removed—if you are otherwise in good tax compliance standing—is to ask for a first-time abate. If this relief isn’t much of an option for you, and you have a partnership, you could invoke Revenue Procedure 84-35. This only works for a Failure to File penalty if your partnership has less than 10 partners and “all the partners reported their shares of partnership tax items on their timely filed tax returns”.


If neither of these methods apply to you, then you’ll need to provide reasonable cause when you call the IRS. Simply put, you’ll need a good excuse. However, the IRS won’t accept “I forgot,” “I made a mistake,” or “I didn’t know the law” as reasonable causes. Valid reasons include death or serious illness of yourself or a close family member, a disaster such as extreme weather or fire, or an inability to obtain records for tax filing.


But before you call the IRS, the smartest thing to do would be reaching out to a tax professional who can guide you. If you do not have one you can trust yet, reach out to XQ CPA. We are here for you, so give us a call or schedule a consultation online today.


Phone: 832-295-3353


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Want to pay less taxes? Read XQ CPA's official tax planning guidebook! How to Grow Your Wealth Through Tax Planning.

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