To help struggling taxpayers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS announced new penalty relief for those who filed certain 2019 or 2020 returns late.
The IRS is also taking an additional step to help those who already paid the penalties. Nearly 1.6 million taxpayers will automatically receive more than $1.2 billion in refunds or credits, the agency said. Many of the payments will occur by the end of September.
These actions allow the IRS to focus its resources on processing backlogged tax returns and taxpayer correspondence to help return to normal operations for the 2023 filing season, the agency added. See Notice 2022-36 for more information.