Penalty Abatement Letters

[equinecpa]

How you normally submit penalty abatement letters? Can they be faxed to practitioner's priority service or should they be mailed? I know I used to call to get abatement but it so hard to get through to a live body with the IRS anymore that I prefer to fax or mail. I've been mailing but just wondering if a fax would work just as well?

Carolyn

[appelman]

How you normally submit penalty abatement letters? Can they be faxed to practitioner's priority service or should they be mailed? I know I used to call to get abatement but it so hard to get through to a live body with the IRS anymore that I prefer to fax or mail. I've been mailing but just wondering if a fax would work just as well?

Carolyn

If it's the "automatic get-out-of-jail-free abatement," you can often get it just by phoning the Practitioner Priority Line. Otherwise, I usually suggest to the client what to write, and have them mail it in. It saves the need for a POA, and often the client can produce a better sob story than you can

[equinecpa]

I'm just doing the "automatic-get-out-of-jail" abatement but for me it is more convenient to mail/fax letters than hang out on hold on the Practitioner Priority Line. Do faxed requests get processed?

[Kram BergGold]

Call PPS

I suggest you call PPS when they first open at 7 AM Eastern. Or call 30 minutes before they close. This is the way I get through. With PPS the case is handled immediately. I had one that PPS could not work on becasue the person had not filed in 2 of the three years, her income was below the filing threshiold. I wrote a letter. The letter was looked at but no one did anything. After 3 or 4 months I called PPS and the Rep said oh I see you wrote, I see she was not required to file so now I can get the penalty removed. Had I not called PPS nothing would ever have happened.