What is a reasonable cause for underpayment penalty?

Asked by: Dr. Kattie Gaylord  |  Last update: October 25, 2025
Score: 4.4/5 (75 votes)

Examples of valid reasons for failing to file or pay on time may include: Fires, natural disasters or civil disturbances. Inability to get records. Death, serious illness or unavoidable absence of the taxpayer or immediate family. System issues that delayed a timely electronic filing or payment.

What triggers an underpayment penalty?

If you didn't pay enough tax throughout the year, either through withholding or by making estimated tax payments, you may have to pay a penalty for underpayment of estimated tax.

What causes a penalty for substantial underpayment?

Underpayment may happen if you don't report all your income or you claim deductions or credits for which you don't qualify. We apply 2 common accuracy-related penalties to individuals: Negligence or disregard of the rules or regulations. Substantial understatement of income tax.

What is a reasonable cause in RM 20.1 1.3 2?

Reasonable cause relief is generally granted when the taxpayer exercised ordinary business care and prudence in determining his or her tax obligations but was nevertheless unable to comply with those obligations.

How much is a typical underpayment penalty?

Penalty. 0.5% of the unpaid tax for each month or part of the month it's unpaid not to exceed 40 months (monthly).

Underpayment penalties: How to avoid them and how to calculate them.

31 related questions found

How do I get rid of underpayment penalty?

The IRS will waive your underpayment penalty if you:
  1. Didn't pay because of a casualty, disaster, or other unusual circumstance that would be unfair to impose the penalty, or.
  2. You retired (after reaching age 62) or became disabled in the current or prior tax year and: You had a reasonable cause for not making the payment.

What is an example of reasonable cause for FTB?

Some examples of reasons provided by a taxpayer that may be accepted as reasonable cause, if substantiated, are 1) the business records were destroyed by fire, 2) the taxpayer was mentally incompetent, and 3) the dishonored payment was due to a bank error.

What does the IRS consider a reasonable cause?

Examples of valid reasons for failing to file or pay on time may include: Fires, natural disasters or civil disturbances. Inability to get records. Death, serious illness or unavoidable absence of the taxpayer or immediate family.

Can you abate underpayment penalties?

You can request First Time Abate for a penalty even if you haven't fully paid the tax on your return. However, the Failure to Pay Penalty will continue to increase until you pay the tax in full. Example: You didn't fully pay your taxes in 2021 and got a notice with the balance due and penalty charges.

What happens if you file your taxes late but don't owe anything?

Those individuals will not face a penalty for filing their taxes late. This is assuming that you eventually do file your taxes, since failing to file entirely can be seen as tax evasion. Just because you won't be penalized does not mean you shouldn't attempt to be timely on your tax filings.

Why do I have an underpayment penalty if I have a refund?

by TurboTax• 833• Updated 6 days ago

The IRS levies underpayment penalties if you don't withhold or pay enough tax on income received during each quarter. Even if you paid your tax bill in full by the April deadline or are getting a refund, you may still get an underpayment penalty.

Does the IRS forgive honest mistakes?

Innocent mistakes can often be forgiven if you can show that you tried to comply and got some advice. But it would be a mistake to assume that anything can be called an innocent mistake. In fact, you can be attributed knowledge.

What are the reasons for underpayment?

Top 10 Causes of Underpayments
  • Applying the wrong award to employees. ...
  • Misclassifying employees as contractors. ...
  • Misclassifying employees as casual. ...
  • Wrongly assuming staff are too senior to be covered by an Award.

How do I appeal an underpayment penalty?

You may file FTB 2918 or call 800-689-4776 to request that we cancel a penalty based on one-time abatement.

What is the safe harbor for underpayment penalty?

The first safe harbor is based on the tax you owe in the current year. If your payments equal or exceed 90% of what you owe in the current year, you can escape a penalty. 2. The second safe harbor is based on the tax you owed in the immediately preceding tax year.

What is the substantial underpayment penalty?

The substantial underpayment penalty specifically equals 20% of the portion of the underpayment that was understated on the tax return.

How do I get out of underpayment penalty?

Avoid a penalty
  1. Your filed tax return shows you owe less than $1,000 or.
  2. You paid at least 90% of the tax shown on the return for the taxable year or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year, whichever amount is less.

How bad is underpayment penalty?

This is an additional charge of 0.5% of any unpaid taxes for each month or partial month the tax goes unpaid, capped at 25% of your tax bill.

How do I convince the IRS to waive a penalty?

How to request penalty relief. Follow the instructions in the IRS notice you received. Some penalty relief requests may be accepted over the phone. Call us at the toll-free number at the top right corner of your notice or letter.

What is the legal term reasonable cause?

Reasonable cause is a term used in law to describe a situation where there is a good reason to believe that someone has committed a crime or that a place contains evidence related to a crime. This belief must be based on facts and cannot be just a suspicion.

Does the IRS ever forgive penalties?

The IRS will automatically waive failure-to-pay penalties on unpaid taxes less than $100,000 for tax years 2020 or 2021. You're eligible for this relief if you meet all the following criteria: Filed a Form 1040 or 1041 tax return for years 2020 and/or 2021. Were assessed taxes of less than $100,000.

How does the IRS determine reasonable compensation?

Reasonable compensation is the value that would ordinarily be paid for like services by like enterprises under like circumstances. Reasonableness is determined based on all the facts and circumstances.

What is the reasonable cause exception?

Reasonable cause

This relief is based on all the facts and circumstances in a taxpayer's situation. The IRS will consider this relief when the taxpayer can show they tried to meet their obligations, but were unable to do so.

What triggers FTB audit?

If there are significant discrepancies between federal and state returns, the state return may be flagged for audit; The FTB's CP-2000program which is based on the IRS's automated computer 2000 program was developed to identify taxpayers who underreport their income.

Does FTB ever waive penalties?

If we imposed a penalty for failure to pay tax by the due date, the penalty may be waived if the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect. We have several resources to assist you in requesting reasonable cause relief: FTB website: Claim for refund.