The Internal Revenue Code contains a labyrinth of overlapping penalties designed to encourage taxpayers to file on time and to pay on time.  Some of the more common penalties include: (1) the failure to file penalty; (2) the failure to pay penalty; (3) the civil fraud penalty for filing a frivolous tax return or for fraudulently failing to file a tax return; (4) the accuracy related penalty; (5) the substantial understatement of tax penalty; and (6) the information reporting penalty.

With an abatement, you may be able to eliminate part or all of your penalties and interest.  To qualify, you must show the IRS that you acted reasonably and in good faith.

Generally, the IRS grants abatements for the late filing of a tax return (or for the failure to timely pay a tax bill) for reasons beyond the taxpayer’s control: (1) serious illness of yourself or a family member; (2) death of a family member; (3) natural disaster; (4) theft of business records

Retaining DeBlis and DeBlis will give you the best chance of obtaining an abatement of penalties and interest.