Assessed by computer, removed by request. The real rate structure of every major penalty, the notices they arrive on, and the relief path for each — first-time abatement, reasonable cause, and the defenses.
IRS penalties are assessed by computer and removed by request — tens of millions assessed a year, and a substantial share abated for taxpayers who ask on the right ground. Every guide below follows the same arc: the real math of the penalty, the traps that inflate it, and the specific relief that removes it. Interest is the one meter that never stops until payment; everything else is negotiable in the literal sense.
Every notice page explains the deadline and drafts the response letter free — find yours.
Look up your IRS notice →Almost all of them, on the right ground: failure to file/pay/deposit respond to first-time abatement and reasonable cause; accuracy penalties fall to substantive defenses; information-return penalties to 6724 reasonable cause; estimated-tax penalties to Form 2210's method and waivers. The exceptions are interest on unpaid tax and fraud penalties.
Yes — assessed penalties accrue daily-compounded interest from the notice date, on top of the interest running on the tax. Removing a penalty removes its interest with it, which is why abatement requests are worth more than their face amount.
Per month: failure to file, at ten times the failure-to-pay rate — which is why 'file even if you can't pay' is the single highest-value rule in this system. In absolute personal exposure: the trust fund recovery penalty, which pierces the business entirely.
Identify the notice (CP14, CP162, CP2000…) on the notice lookup, understand which penalties it carries using the guides below, then run the first-time abatement checker — the fastest removal path when it applies.