Wang Solutions

The IRS Made it Hard to Find…

Failed…

That’s the only word to describe the IRS’ actions concerning penalty forgiveness. How else could you explain forgetting to inform 1.45 million taxpayers that they qualified for and had a right to ask for relief from tax penalties totaling $181 million? If you’re like most people and have never heard of this tax penalty relief, here’s the reason why:

The IRS fines taxpayers when they don’t file a tax return or pay the full tax shown on any tax return. However, any taxpayers who have demonstrated full compliance over the previous three years can have these fines waved in something known as “first-time abate” (FTA). The only catch is that you need to first request the penalty waiver – and that’s hard to do if you don’t even know the waiver exists.

And the IRS has certainly kept its lips zipped and its fine print invisible. The potential penalty relief is not mentioned anywhere on Form 1040, nor is it on the IRS website’s page about penalties, or on any balance due notices – not even within the text on those documents mentioning penalties for failure to file or pay. Even worse, over 90% of the people who actually did qualify for the penalty relief were not granted it.

Of course, the IRS’ failure does not mean that all taxpayers are perfect angels. The TIGTA found that a number of taxpayers who received the FTA waivers failed to fully pay off their taxes six months after the postponement. Accordingly, the TIGTA suggested that the IRS also use the FTA waiver as a compliance tool: make taxpayers aware of their potential to receive an FTA waiver based on their past compliance history and make receipt of the waiver dependent on taxpayers paying their current liability. That way, it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

If you to read all of the juicy legal tidbits regarding the TIGTA’s findings, you can check out the full report here.

On the Money,  Sufen Wang,  Wang Solutions