Recover the IRS penalties you never owed.
If your business paid late-filing, late-payment, or interest charges between January 2020 and July 2023, you may qualify for a full refund under the IRS's penalty abatement provisions. Our specialists file Form 843 on your behalf — and you don't pay unless we recover.
See if your business qualifies.
A federal court just confirmed: the IRS overcharged you during COVID.
In Kwong v. United States (U.S. Court of Federal Claims, 2025), the court ruled the IRS failed to apply the automatic deadline postponement that IRC § 7508A(d) requires during the COVID-19 disaster period. The federal disaster declaration ran from January 20, 2020 through May 11, 2023, plus the statutory 60-day extension — making the effective window for refund eligibility run through July 10, 2023.
The window to claim that refund — under IRC § 6511 — closes for most taxpayers on July 10, 2026. After that date, the refund is permanently forfeited.
Between 2020 and 2023, during the federal COVID-19 disaster declaration, the IRS assessed billions of dollars in late-filing and late-payment penalties to American small businesses. Many of those penalties were levied during a period of unprecedented disruption — pandemic shutdowns, employee shortages, supply-chain collapse, and shifting filing deadlines that even the IRS itself could not keep straight.
What the IRS rarely advertises: there is a formal mechanism — first-time penalty abatement and reasonable cause abatement — that allows your business to recover those penalties in full, plus the interest you paid on them. The form is called Form 843. The legal grounds are well-established. The success rate, when filed correctly, is high.
The problem is that the request must be filed precisely. The reasonable-cause argument must be documented. The transcripts must be pulled. Most business owners — and even most CPAs whose specialty is preparation, not representation — never file the request at all. The penalties stay with the IRS. The refund is left on the table.
That's the gap our firm fills. We are an authorized IRS representation practice. You sign Form 8821 so we can pull your transcripts, we build the case, and you sign Form 843 to file the request. We do everything in between, and track the refund through to your bank account.
Four steps. Two signatures.
You sign Form 8821 so we can pull your transcripts, then sign Form 843 once we've built your case. We handle everything in between — and everything after.
You sign Form 8821
A single tax-information authorization that allows us to pull your IRS transcripts on your behalf.
FORM 8821 · TAX INFO AUTHWe pull transcripts
We retrieve your full IRS account history and confirm exactly which penalties and interest charges were assessed.
IRS TRANSCRIPT REVIEWYou sign Form 843
We prepare the abatement request with the appropriate legal grounds. You sign — we submit it directly to the IRS.
FORM 843 · ABATEMENT REQUESTYou receive your refund
The IRS processes the abatement and issues your refund. Most cases resolve in 60–120 days.
REFUND ISSUED · DIRECTTwo paths to a full refund.
The IRS allows penalty abatement under specific provisions. Most business owners qualify under one — many qualify under both.
- i.
First-Time Penalty Abatement
If your business has been compliant for the three preceding tax years, you qualify for automatic abatement of failure-to-file, failure-to-pay, and failure-to-deposit penalties.
- ii.
Reasonable Cause Abatement
The IRS recognizes events outside your control — natural disasters, illness, records destruction, advisor error — as legitimate grounds for full penalty removal regardless of compliance history.
- iii.
COVID-Era Provisions
Penalties assessed during 2020–2023 may qualify for additional relief under pandemic-specific IRS provisions. The window for these claims closes July 10, 2026.
- iv.
Statutory Exception
If the IRS itself made an error in assessing the penalty, you are entitled to abatement under the statutory exception provision.
Form 843 is the key.
Form 843 is the official IRS request for refund and abatement. When filed correctly with the right substantiation, it triggers the IRS to recalculate your account and issue a refund check directly to your business.
Read the Form 843 Guide →Refunds, not promises.
Every case is different. Every refund is real. Below: representative business-owner outcomes from recent cases.
“I had no idea this was even an option. The whole process took fifteen minutes of my time. The check showed up ninety days later.”
“My CPA never mentioned this. We had been writing checks to the IRS for two years on penalties we apparently never owed.”
“They handled everything. I signed two forms. The IRS deposited the refund directly into our business account like clockwork.”
What business owners actually ask.
The IRS allows taxpayers to request abatement (cancellation) of certain penalties under three primary provisions: first-time penalty abatement (FTA), reasonable cause, and statutory exception. When you qualify, the penalties — and any interest assessed on those penalties — are removed from your account. If you have already paid those penalties, the IRS issues a refund.
The mechanism for the request is IRS Form 843. The form must be filed with proper substantiation, the correct tax periods, and the appropriate legal grounds clearly stated.
Most CPAs specialize in tax preparation — not IRS representation. Filing Form 843 is a representation activity, not a preparation activity, and it requires authorization to act on the taxpayer's behalf before the IRS. Many CPAs simply refer their clients to firms like ours that focus on this specific work.
Pulling your IRS transcripts is free — we only charge once we file Form 843 on your behalf. Our fee is a $100 filing fee plus 20% of any recovered refund. No upfront payment required. If your transcripts come back with nothing worth filing on, you owe nothing.
From the date Form 843 is mailed to the IRS, most cases resolve in 60 to 120 days. Some complex cases — particularly those involving multiple tax years or business types — may take longer. We track every case from submission to refund receipt and keep you updated throughout.
To begin: your name, business email, business entity type, the tax years affected, and rough estimates of the penalties and interest you paid. From there, we send you a Form 8821 (Tax Information Authorization) and a service agreement. Once those are signed and returned, we pull your IRS transcripts and begin building your case.
Yes. Penalty abatement is a formal IRS program codified in the Internal Revenue Manual. Form 843 is an official IRS form. We operate as authorized representatives under IRS Circular 230. Every step of the process is documented, transparent, and follows established IRS procedures.
Sixty seconds to know if you qualify for a full refund.
Contingency basis. No upfront cost. No obligation. Confidential. If we don't recover, you don't pay.