Taxpayers and practitioners log how their reasonable cause and first-time abatement requests turned out, so the next person can see which arguments worked for which penalties.
Outcome of the initial request to the IRS, before any appeal.
A case citing several reasons counts once under each.
Whether any supporting evidence went with the request.
How soon the return was filed or tax paid once the obstacle ended.
Describe your situation and the ledger finds the reported cases most like it, weighting closer matches more heavily. This summarizes past reports. It is not a prediction of your result, and it is not tax or legal advice.
It will appear once a moderator checks it for identifying details, usually within a few days. Save this deletion code. It is the only way to remove your case later, because we don't collect your name or email.
Enter the deletion code you were shown after submitting. Your case is deleted immediately and can't be recovered. Deleted cases are removed from future statistics; figures already published or licensed in aggregate can't be recalculated retroactively.
Lost your code? Email with the penalty type, tax year and roughly when you submitted, and we'll try to find it.
Self-reported entries are unverified. People with unusually good or bad outcomes are more likely to report, so success rates here won't match the IRS's overall abatement rates. Use the Ledger to see which arguments have worked for similar facts, not to predict your own result.
Entries marked Court decision are published Tax Court or federal court opinions, coded into the same fields by our editors. They show how judges applied the rules, but only disputes that reached court appear there.
The questions follow the factors IRS employees weigh under Internal Revenue Manual 20.1.1: when the problem arose relative to the due date, whether it continued through the period of noncompliance, how quickly the taxpayer complied once it ended, the taxpayer's compliance history, and whether the facts are documented.
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Nothing on this site is tax or legal advice, and using it doesn't create an adviser relationship with anyone. For advice about your situation, talk to a CPA, enrolled agent or tax attorney. If you can't afford one, a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic may be able to help for free or at low cost.