I was meeting with a current client and an IRS Revenue Officer in my office this afternoon and we were discussing his tax liability and the enormous amount of penalties and interest that his company owes on top of the modest amount of tax that is due. Along the way we have attempted to have the penalties abated, but the IRS concluded that his reasons for not paying the taxes when due did not meet the “reasonable cause” qualification for allowing an abatement of penalties.
About five years ago an entire market sector (textiles) basically disintegrated in our area, leaving many people without a job and many companies closing their doors. My client’s business served the textile industry heavily and when they took a hit, so did my client’s business. When the market turned down, so did my client’s business and he was forced to lay many of his employees off - including his bookkeeper. So he had to learn on the fly how to file 941 quarterly returns, and how to make weekly tax deposits at the IRS. Unfortunately, he did not make these payments or filings on time, but rather sporadically, and the IRS doesn’t really care the reason for the company not making the payments or filings on time.
The Revenue Officer gave my client this advice, and this applies not only to business owners but also to individual taxpayers as well: File your returns on time, whether you can pay or not. The non-filing penalty is one penalty you can prevent all together and you won’t have to ask the IRS to abate at a later time. Then all you would have to worry about is the failure to pay penalty (and the failure to deposit penalty if you are a business owner not making the deposits for your 941 taxes).
Short and sweet, but should save taxpayers a lot of money in penalties: File your returns no matter what.
Tripp Atkins is a Greenville, South Carolina lawyer practicing in the area of IRS Tax Resolution. If you have a tax problem, whether it is a levy, wage garnishment, or you just owe a lot of money and you want to get the IRS off of your back, contact Tripp through his website (http://www.atkinssc.com). There are many solutions and ways he can help take care of your IRS debt. Tripp writes a blog and weekly question and answer column about the area of tax resolution.