TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) - Happy Holidays from the Internal Revenue Service!
The IRS says it's waiving about $1 billion in late-payment penalties, representing about $206 per return. It says it's going to waive penalty fees for people who failed to pay back taxes for 2020 and 2021 tax years.
This is for people and businesses making under $400,000 per year with back taxes of less than $100,000 for those tax years.
Why the generosity?
According to the IRS, it's partly due to the fact that during the pandemic, it temporarily suspended mailing automated reminders to pay overdue tax bills.
In a statement, the IRS says:
"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."
The IRS says if people paid the failure-to-pay penalty, they will get a refund.
"As the IRS has been preparing to return to normal collection mailings, we have been concerned about taxpayers who haven't heard from us in a while suddenly getting a larger tax bill. The IRS should be looking out for taxpayers, and this penalty relief is a common-sense approach to help people in this situation," said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. "We are taking other steps to help taxpayers with past-due bills, and we have options to help people struggling to pay."