PENALTY ABATEMENT

If you are represented by a good tax attorney it may be shown that circumstances beyond your control kept you from paying in a timely fashion, which led to income tax debt.

Penalties can easily make up to 25% of the total amount owed, but could reach much higher depending on the type of penalty.  IRS tax penalty abatement does happen.  It has happened for our clients.

Before applying for any abatement of penalty you should have proper representation because there are key points that must be demonstrated in a proper manner in order to satisfy requirements on any abatement of penalty.

The IRS also penalizes taxpayers for inaccurately reporting their income and for committing tax fraud.  The amount of penalty depends on the reason for, and the amount of, tax underpayment.  Penalties for tax fraud are usually the highest amounts allowed by law.  Penalties keep accruing the longer the taxes go unpaid.  In some cases, the amount of the combined penalties exceeds the tax itself.  IRS tax penalty abatement is often the only way out.

Your IRS tax lawyer must be able to convince either the IRS or a court that the assessment of the tax or of the penalty was unfounded.  Your Attorney must present the government with specific reasons as to why an abatement of penalty is warranted.  The best results are achieved when your Tax Attorney can point to a specific provision in the tax code or to similar facts in case law where a Court has found that assessed taxes or penalties should be reduced or eliminated.

Make it easy on yourself; call IRS Tax Attorney John M. Weinberg today, to see if an abatement of penalty might be in your future.

IRS policy is to enforce all penalties, even if a taxpayer full pays the debt. Apart from discharging a tax debt in Bankruptcy Court, the only way to abate a penalty is to specifically request penalty abatement.   Your attorney would need to make the argument that the taxpayer is entitled to this relief from penalty under the rules established in the Internal Revenue Manual. Typically, this requires providing evidence that the taxpayer faced an illness, a family emergency, or some other circumstances (such as having records needed to file a tax return destroyed in a flood, fire or hurricane) which kept the taxpayer from filing a tax return or paying his taxes on time. 

In addition to these fact patterns, it may be possible to argue that the taxpayer was assessed a penalty only because his actions were taken in reliance on a CPA, tax preparer or tax attorney who gave bad advice.

To have any hope of prevailing with a penalty abatement request you will need an experienced attorney who can realistically evaluate the facts of your case and make the right arguments. The Weinberg Law Firm is ready to help.