How Good People Solve Bad IRS Problems - Nick Nemeth - Manual / Resource - Page 55
End Your IRS Problems
The reality is that any reason is a good reason. Look
at it this way ... if you didn’t file or pay on time or at
all, chances are something was going on in your life
at the time that caused you to forget to file or not pay.
Whatever it was ... regardless of how trivial it may
seem to you ... this is the real reason you didn’t file
or pay. The point is that whatever your reason ... it’s
yours.
The next step is to present your reason in a few
sentences or longer to help support why you failed to
file or pay. Your goal is to get the one IRS employee
who reads your reason to buy into it.
Remember: the IRS grants 50% of the requests for
penalty abatement. This means you have a 50-50
chance of having the IRS agree with your reason.
The Steps to Getting a Penalty Abated:
1.
Find out what penalties the IRS has assessed
against you. You can find this out by reading your
IRS transcripts.
2. Determine what reasons (excuses) you may have
for not filing or not paying. (I’ve found it helpful to
create a chronological list of the original due dates
for each unfiled return and unpaid tax, and across
from each due date, write out whatever was going
on in your life at the time that may have caused
you not to file or pay.)
3. Write a letter and, in your own words, tell the IRS
why they should consider abating your penalties.
If you have any written information which can
support your reason, be sure to include it in your
letter. Written information could be general newspaper or magazine articles about bad weather, poor
economy, bad allergy season, or specific documentation regarding your reason. You can’t provide too
much-written back-up.
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