US Taxpayers Are Receiving Automated $10, 000 Penalty Assessments For Late Filed Form 5471's

We previously posted numerous blog posts regarding that US Taxpayers are receiving automated $10, 000 Penalty Assessments for late filed Form 5471's, where we discussed that we have been receiving a lot of calls from taxpayers who have recently received penalty notices regarding late filed or non-filed Form 5471. (See also, We Can Help You Eliminate Your $25, 000 Late Form 5472 Penalties for $5, 000 Per Penalty!)

The Internal Revenue Service imposes an automatic penalty of $10, 000 whenever an individual or company is late in filing an information return disclosing their interest in a foreign corporation, regardless of whether there is any associated underreported of income or tax deficiencies.

U.S. persons including businesses with at least a 10 percent interest in a foreign corporation or who are officers of a foreign corporation in which any U.S. person owns or acquires a 10 percent interest are required to file a Form 5471 with their tax return to disclose their ownership.

The IRS has begun to automatically applying the $10, 000 penalty for each Form 5471 that was filed after the due date.

There are basically two remaining ways to defend against these automatic assessments and request penalty abatement for filing an international information return after the due date:

1. Follow the Delinquent Information Return Procedure - The taxpayer can file through the Service's procedures for delinquent international information returns. This procedure is appropriate for taxpayers who can establish reasonable cause for their failure to file or whose failure to file has caused no or nominal tax non-compliance. In our opinion the Delinquent Information Return Procedure is no longer available after November 9, 2020, as it curretly provides:

Taxpayers may attach a reasonable cause statement to each delinquent information return filed for which reasonable cause is being asserted. During processing of the delinquent information return, penalties may be assessed without considering the attached reasonable cause statement.

This is nothing like FAQ #18, in our opinion, which originally established the Delinquent Information Return Procedure. So basically this is nothing more than a delinquent filing with the Reasonable Cause Defense for the assessment of the penalty. (See #2 Reasonable Cause Defense).

Also in our opinion you should be prepared to go to the appeals division of the IRS, to get this penalty abated, based upon reasonable cause.

2. Reasonable Cause Defense - Under Section 6038 of the tax code, which lays out the information reporting requirements for individuals and businesses with an interest in foreign corporations and the penalties for delinquent filing, penalties may be abated if a reasonable cause exists for the failure to file. However, neither the statute nor the applicable regulations define a reasonable cause standard for the abatement. Treasury Regulations Section 301.6651-1(c) provide a definition of what constitutes reasonable cause for failure to file corporate income tax returns and says that "if the taxpayer exercised ordinary business care and prudence and was nevertheless unable to file the return within the prescribed time, then the delay is due to reasonable cause."

3. Ask for a First-Time Offender Abatement (FTA) - Generally, an FTA can provide penalty relief if the taxpayer has not previously been required to file a return or has no prior penalties (except the estimated tax penalty) for the preceding three years with respect to the same IRS File (IRM §20.1.1.3.6.1). With respect to a Form 5472 late-filing penalty, the IRM provides for an FTA if an FTA was applied to the taxpayer's related Form 1120 late-filing penalty or no penalty was assessed on the related Form 1120 (IRM §21.8.2.20.2).

Statute of Limitations Issue- Though a $10, 000 penalty may discourage some from filing in international information return after the deadline, there is a greater exposure to not late filing and information return and that is that the statute of limitations for tax returns which is generally three years does not apply for returns that are missing the information reports and the statute remains open indefinitely. Under the indefinite statute of limitations, not only can the IRS make adjustments to items related to the international information returns, but they also can examine any other area on the tax return.

Corporate Tax