Accountant in Miami, Gustavo A Viera, notes that approximately 1.45 million taxpayers who qualified for relief from tax penalties never received it. Tax penalties totaling close to $181 million never heard from the Internal Revenue Service that they were entitled to it and never received it, according to Accountant in Miami, Gustavo A Viera managing partner.

Viera noted that the Tax Code imposes penalties on taxpayers with a filing requirement who fail to file a tax return or fail to timely pay the full tax shown on any tax return. Accountants in Miami can have the IRS waives those penalties for taxpayers who have demonstrated full compliance over the prior three years and all you have to do is ask. The IRS does not widely publicize the opportunity to request this waiver, known as a First-Time Abate.

The reason for granting the First-Time Abate is to reward past tax compliance and promote future tax compliance. However, most taxpayers with compliant tax histories are not offered and do not receive the waiver, Viera found. For the tax year 2010, Accountants in Miami estimated that approximately 250,000 taxpayers with failure-to-file penalties and 1.2 million taxpayers with failure-to-pay penalties did not receive penalty relief even though they qualified under First-Time Abate waiver criteria. Accountants in Miami estimated the unabated penalties totaled more than $181 million.

“Penalty waivers should not be granted only to taxpayers with knowledge of IRS processes,” said Viera. “If the IRS does not administer these and other penalties fairly and accurately, taxpayers’ confidence in the tax system will be jeopardized.”

In addition, Viera found that the First-Time Abate waiver is not used to its full potential as a compliance tool because when it is granted, it is granted before taxpayers demonstrate full compliance by paying their current tax liability.

Gustavo A Viera, Viera managing partner, and Accountant in Miami suggested that the First-Time Abate waiver would be better used as a compliance tool if the IRS ensured that taxpayers were aware of the potential to receive the waiver based on their past compliance history while making receipt of the waiver contingent upon taxpayers paying their current tax liabilities.

In response to the report, IRS officials agreed with the recommendations and said they are taking appropriate corrective actions. The IRS plans to study how best to use the First-Time Abate waiver as a compliance tool. It also intends to review the current process for application of an FTA waiver prior to reasonable cause and its impact on taxpayers who qualify for the reasonable cause but instead are given an FTA waiver.

“Our policy on FTA was initially developed to both reduce the burden on taxpayers with a history of compliance as well as conserve IRS resources. “We, therefore, designed our process to first consider FTA so further detailed information and analysis would not be required as it is when making a reasonable cause determination. We will continue to review our policies for the application of FTA and Reasonable Cause to determine the best ways to assist taxpayers with their federal tax payment obligations. This includes ensuring appropriate communication to taxpayers.”