The situation
Following her husband’s long illness and death, Susan in Pennsylvania fell behind on filing and paying. The tax itself was manageable, but the IRS had layered on roughly $19,000 in failure-to-file and failure-to-pay penalties on top of the balance during the hardest year of her life.
What we did
- We reviewed her transcripts and confirmed a clean compliance history in the prior years.
- For the qualifying period we requested First-Time Abatement, an administrative waiver of penalties.
- For the remaining periods we built a reasonable-cause request, documenting the illness, hospitalization, and death with medical and supporting records.
- We framed the penalty abatement narrative to meet the IRS’s specific standards for relief.
The outcome
The IRS removed the penalties, and the associated interest on those penalties came off with them. Susan was left with only the underlying tax, which she resolved through a short payment plan.
Penalties are negotiable
Penalties can be a quarter or more of a balance. First-time and reasonable-cause relief remove billions in penalties each year — but the relief is rarely automatic; you have to ask, correctly.
See how much of your penalties we can remove.
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About these stories
Illustrative client scenarios based on common case types. Individual results vary. These scenarios are composites drawn from common case types we handle at US Certified Tax Services; they are not specific named clients and are provided for illustration only. Outcomes depend on your individual facts and IRS determinations. For a review of your situation, request a free consultation.