11. COMPUTATION OF TRUST FUND RECOVERY PENALTY

§ 5:61 In General

In proposing a Trust Fund Recovery Penalty, an IRS Revenue Officer will secure transcripts of all the unpaid tax periods of a corporation. The Officer will then complete a computation sheet. Revenue Officers are instructed to compute the proposed penalty in a manner most advantageous to the government. [Rev. Proc. 2002-26; Rev. Rul. 73-304, 1973-2 C.B. 42; Rev. Rul. 79-284, 1979-2 C.B. 83] As tax practitioners, our goal, obviously, is to compute the proposed penalty in a manner most advantageous to the client. In every case, recompute the proposed penalty. By reviewing the computation and IRS transcripts one can verify the proper computation of the penalty. Many times the Revenue Officer has failed to follow even the guidelines set out in the Internal Revenue Manual.

§ 5:62 Payments Applied To Accrued Interest And Penalties

Of particular interest is the position of the IRS that it may apply payments to accrued interest and accrued penalty prior to paying assessed trust fund taxes. The IRS computer does not apply payments in this manner on the corporate account. It only applies payments to accrued penalty and interest when all assessed tax penalty and interest has been paid. The computer does apply payments in the manner set forth in Appendix 5C when it is computing the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty. It is certainly arguable that the IRS should compute a proposed Read More