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How To Qualify For IRS Penalty Abatement
We frequently get questions about how to qualify for IRS penalty abatement. If you've been wondering about this yourself (or know someone who has been), then you're in luck. Here's the scoop.
There are two ways to qualify for penalty abatement: First Time Penalty Abatement (FTA) and Reasonable Cause. In this post, we'll address "First Time Penalty Abatement."
First Time Penalty Abatement (FTA)
While you may find this hard to believe, for once, the IRS actually made things easier. Yes, you read that right! You see, before 2023, to qualify for FTA, the IRS required:
Your last 6 years of tax returns to be filed, and
An Installment Agreement to be in place
Now, the requirements for "how to qualify for IRS penalty abatement" are:
A FTA can be requested over the phone ,
Only the last 3 years of tax returns are required to be filed,
An installment agreement does not have to be in place
So, What's The Catch?
In order to qualify for a First Time Penalty Abatement under the new rules, taxpayers must have a "clean" record the last 3 years. This means that you must not have been assessed a failure to file or failure to pay penalty in the past 3 years. If you have, then, you won't be eligible under these new guidelines, but you may be able to obtain penalty relief through reasonable cause (another topic for another day).
Conclusion
To summarize, in order to qualify for First Time Penalty Abatement, you'll need to be current on all of the 3 previous years' tax returns and not have been hit with failure to file or failure to pay penalties. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!
To your success!
P.S. Make sure you get your FREE copy of our SPECIAL REPORT: "The 7 Secrets The IRS Does NOT Want You To Know!" (simply click on the link in the previous sentence, scroll down to the second section of our home page, and download your copy today!)
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