Substantial Tax Understatement Penalty Waiver

May 07, 2022 Last reply: 4 years ago 1 Replies
B

Not having any dealings for 50+ years with the IRS other than filing taxes each year I now find myself receiving a nice letter last Thursday stating I owe $7559 in tax and interest plus $1453 for a "Substantial Tax Understatement Penalty" for the tax year 2020.



BACKGROUND



Father passed away in April 2020 and I open up a brokerage account with one of the majors to deposit proceeds from the estate.



End of year tax statements from this account were set-up to be notified to me via email.. I don't recall setting it up this way but its neither here nor there at this point.



Tax forms from all of my other brokerage accounts are sent to me via U.S. Mail.



As as result, I didn't report the income from the estate proceeds.


I agree with all the numbers the IRS furnished on their letter and will be paying the tax owed plus the interest.


QUESTION



Are the arguments as stated above stand a chance for a waiver of the penalty ?



Is there a Form I complete or should I call the IRS ?



Any other assistance would be appreciated..



Thanks



Rich


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S

I think the IRS would argue that it's your responsibility to get statements for income, or at least to obtain the figures and include them on your return. The mythical "ordinary reasonable and prudent man" would know what accounts he has, and take steps to obtain missing information.

I think not, but there's no downside that I know of to requesting a penalty waiver, and you might get lucky. Your chances are better if you've never had a penalty waiver before.

Unless things have changed, you do it by letter. The letter you received should explain what to do if you disagree with the IRS's findings.

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