Tax Penalties
Directions

9900 Main Street Plaza 101 Fairfax, VA 22031

Phone: (703) 383-1TAX
Fax: (703) 383-9TAX



 

Failure to File

If you do not file your return by the due date (including extensions), you may have to pay a failure-to-file penalty. The penalty is usually 5 percent for each month or part of a month that a return is late, but not more than 25 percent. The penalty is based on the tax not paid by the due date (without regard to extensions). If you file your return more than 60 days after the due date, the minimum penalty is $100 or, if less, 100 percent of the tax on your return. Click here for more information.

Failure to Pay

You will have to pay a failure-to-pay penalty of ½ of 1 percent (0.5 percent) of your unpaid taxes for each month, or part of a month, after the due date that the tax is not paid. This penalty does not apply during the automatic six-month extension of time to file period if you paid at least 90 percent of your actual tax liability on or before the original due date of your return and pay the balance when you file the return. Click here for more information.

Estimated Tax Penalty

The United States income tax is a pay-as-you-go tax, which means that tax must be paid as you earn or receive your income during the year. You can either do this through withholding or by making estimated tax payments. If you do not pay enough tax, you may have to pay a penalty for underpayment of estimated tax. Generally, most taxpayers will have paid enough tax to avoid this penalty if they owe less than $1,000 in tax after subtracting their withholdings and credits, or if they paid at least 90% of the tax for the current year, or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year, whichever is smaller. There are special rules for farmers and fishermen. Please refer to Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax, for additional information.


Generally, the payments should be made in four equal amounts to avoid a penalty. However, if you made unequal payments because your income was received unevenly during the year, you may be able to avoid or lower the penalty by annualizing your income. Use Form 2210 (PDF), Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals, Estates, and Trusts, to see if you owe a penalty for underpaying your estimated tax. Click here for more information.

The penalty may be waived if:

  • The failure to make estimated payments was caused by a casualty, disaster, or other unusual circumstance and it would be inequitable to impose the penalty, or
  • You retired (after reaching age 62) or became disabled during the tax year for which estimated payments were required to be made or in the preceding tax year, and the underpayment was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect.

Negligence Penalty

"Negligence" includes (but is not limited to) any failure to:

  • make a reasonable attempt to comply with the internal revenue laws
  • exercise ordinary and reasonable care in preparation of a tax return or
  • keep adequate books and records or to substantiate items properly

This penalty may be asserted if you carelessly, recklessly or intentionally disregard IRS rules and regulations - by taking a position on your return with little or no effort to determine whether the position is correct or knowingly taking a position that is incorrect. You will not have to pay a negligence penalty if there was a reasonable cause for a position you took and you acted in good faith.

Early Pension Distribution Penalty

“To discourage the use of pension funds for purposes other than normal retirement, the law imposes an additional 10% tax on certain early distributions of these funds. Early distributions are those you receive from a qualified retirement plan or deferred annuity contract before reaching age 59 1/2.” Click here for more information.

Substantial Understatement  of Tax

“You understate your tax if the tax shown on your return is less than the correct tax. The understatement is substantial if it is more than the larger of 10 percent of the correct tax or $5,000for individuals. For corporations, the understatement is considered substantial if the tax shown on your return exceeds the lesser of 10 percent (or if greater, $10,000) or $10,000,000.

You may avoid the substantial understatement penalty if you have substantial authority for your tax treatment of the item or through adequate disclosure. To avoid the substantial understatement penalty by adequate disclosure, you must properly disclose the position on the tax return and there must at least be a reasonable basis for the position.

To properly disclose the position, complete and attach IRS Form 8275 to your tax return and disclose all relevant facts. A reasonable basis is one that has approximately 10 percent or greater chance of success if challenged. This means that the position must be more than just arguable. There must be some authority supporting the position.” Click here for more information.

Civil Fraud

“If there is any underpayment of tax on your return due to fraud, a penalty of 75 percent of the underpayment due to fraud will be added to your tax. The fraud penalty on a joint return does not apply to a spouse unless some part of the underpayment is due to the fraud of that spouse.
Negligence or ignorance of the law does not constitute fraud.
Typically, IRS examiners who find strong evidence of fraud will refer the case to the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division for possible criminal prosecution. Keep in mind that both civil sanctions and criminal prosecution may be imposed.”
Click here for more information.

Criminal Fraud

Certain criminal activities are investigated extensively by IRS’ Criminal Investigation. For more information please click here.

Note:  Research the above and enter just a summary of the penalty for example its definition and calculation

Go To Top

Home | Services | Tax Tools | Business | About Us | Contact

Copyright © 2009 Professional Tax Centers, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
At Professional Tax Centers We tip the scale in your favor.
Legal | Privacy Statement | Site Map