Reviewed by Main AI · Updated July 2026
Two main routes: First-Time Abatement if you have a clean 3-year compliance history, or reasonable-cause relief for circumstances like serious illness or disaster. Interest on tax usually can’t be removed, but penalty relief is real.
IRS penalties are more removable than most people think. First-Time Abatement (FTA) is nearly automatic if you qualify: a clean compliance history for the prior three years, all returns filed, and current on payments — it can wipe failure-to-file and failure-to-pay penalties for one period. Beyond FTA, reasonable-cause relief covers situations genuinely beyond your control: serious illness, natural disaster, unavoidable records loss. You request abatement by phone, in writing, or with Form 843, explaining the facts. Interest on the underlying tax generally stays, but interest on abated penalties goes with them.
Circumstances beyond your control that prevented compliance — serious illness, death in the family, natural disaster, or inability to obtain records — supported by documentation.
Interest on the tax itself generally remains, but interest that accrued on the abated penalties is removed along with them.
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