penalty abatement


Court Rejects the ‘Taking All Necessary Steps’ Defense to Penalties

If you take all of the steps to prepare and remit a tax return to the IRS except for placing it in the mail, is this sufficient to avoid a failure to timely file penalty?  There is case law suggesting …..

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Relying on an Attorney for a Tax Filing Deadline is Reasonable Cause

In Estate of Hake v. United States, No. 1:15-CV-1382 (M.D. Pa 2017), the court considered whether relying on an attorney for when a tax return had to be filed, rather than relying on the attorney to file the tax return, was reasonable cause. The case should make it easier to get failure-to-file penalties removed for […]

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Written Manager Approval for Penalties Not Required in Some Cases

An IRS agent is generally required to get written approval from their manager for a tax penalty can be assessed. This is requirement is set out in the Code. This begs the question as to what happens if the agent does not get written approval before he closes the audit? The court addressed this in […]

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Court Revisits Reasonable Cause for Abating Penalties

The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that taxpayers cannot avoid penalties by blindly rely on tax advisors to file tax returns and make tax payments. These situations are unfortunate. The court in Specht v. United States, No. 15-3095 (6th Cir. 2016) highlights one way that taxpayers may be able to avoid the bright […]

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Facts Needed to Abate Penalties Based on Reasonable Cause

Taxpayers often contest penalties by arguing that their failures were due to reasonable cause. Many of these penalty abatement requests are resolved at the administrative level. The cases that end up being litigated typically do not have the best facts…


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