IRS Announces Pandemic-Related Penalty ReliefDecember 21, 2023

The IRS announced on Tuesday new penalty relief for approximately 4.7 million individuals, businesses, and tax-exempt organizations that were not sent automated collection reminder notices during the COVID pandemic. (IR 2023-244; Notice 2024-7, 2024-2 IRB; Fact Sheet 2023-28)

The IRS will be providing about $1B in penalty relief. Most of those receiving the penalty relief make under $400,000 a year.

Due to the unprecedented effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS temporarily suspended the mailing of automated reminders to pay overdue tax bills starting in February 2022. These reminders would have normally been issued as a follow up after the initial notice. Although these reminder notices were suspended, the failure-to-pay penalty continues to accrue for taxpayers who did not fully pay their bills in response to the initial balance due notice.

Given this unusual situation, the IRS is taking several steps in advance of resuming normal collection notices for tax years 2020 and 2021 to help taxpayers with unpaid tax bills, including some people who have not received a notice from the IRS in more than a year.