Failure-to-file and failure-to-pay penalties come off more often than people think — if you ask on the right ground, in writing. Here's the whole playbook: first-time abatement, reasonable cause, and what to send.
The IRS assesses tens of millions of penalties a year and abates a large share of them — but almost never spontaneously. The two grounds that work: first-time abatement (pure compliance-history math — 3 clean prior years and you qualify) and reasonable cause (facts that show ordinary business care despite the failure: hospitalization, disaster, death in the family, records destroyed, reliance on wrong professional advice). Match your facts to the right ground before writing a word.
The notice names it: failure-to-file (5%/month, max 25%), failure-to-pay (0.5%/month), or a deposit penalty. Each is abated separately, per tax period.
If the prior 3 years are clean, lead with FTA — it's near-automatic and saves the reasonable-cause story for a year that needs it.
Dates, facts, documents: what happened, when, how it prevented compliance, and what you did as soon as you could. Attach proof — hospital records, insurance claims, obituaries.
Form 843 or a letter, certified mail, one per period. Denied? You can appeal — reasonable-cause denials reverse at Appeals regularly.
Every notice page explains the deadline and drafts the response letter free — find yours.
Look up your IRS notice →Form 843 (Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement) asks the IRS to remove or refund penalties and certain interest. The two workhorse grounds: first-time abatement (a clean compliance history for the prior 3 years) and reasonable cause (illness, disaster, records unavailable, bad advice relied on in good faith).
An administrative waiver: if you filed (or validly extended) and paid on time for the past 3 years, the IRS removes failure-to-file and failure-to-pay penalties for one year on request — no sad story required. It can be granted in a single phone call, but a written request creates the record if the agent says no.
Interest charged ON an abated penalty comes off automatically with it. Interest on the underlying tax generally cannot be abated except where an IRS error or delay caused it (IRC 6404(e)).
Either works for most penalty abatements — the IRS accepts a clear written request stating the penalty, the period, and the ground. Form 843 is the belt-and-suspenders format; a letter with the same content is processed the same way. Certified mail either way.