KWONG v United States
The recent Kwong v. United States court ruling found that the IRS may have improperly charged penalties and interest to millions of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the court's reasoning, federal tax deadlines were automatically extended, meaning many late-filing or late-payment fees assessed during that period should not have been issued.
If you were impacted (i.e. you owed/paid penalties and interest to the IRS from January 20, 2020 – July 10, 2023), you have a major opportunity to seek an abatement to cancel these unpaid charges or get a refund for what you already paid. To secure your relief, you must formally submit an abatement or protective refund claim directly to the IRS, but your window to act is incredibly short due to a strict July 10, 2026, statute of limitations. If you would like us to prepare the abatement claim on your behalf, please call our office to get started!
To secure this relief a formal protective refund claim must be submitted directly to the IRS. PLEASE NOTE: the window to submit this claim closes on July 10, 2026, as this is the date the statute of limitations for this relief ends.
Please call our office (402-379-7818) if you are interested in pursuing this opportunity.
PLEASE NOTE: Only penalties or interest assessed or accrued between January 20, 2020, and July 10, 2023, qualify for this relief.
Q: Who qualifies for this relief?
A: Taxpayers who paid late filing penalties, late payment penalties, interest, and potentially other penalties to the IRS between January 20, 2020, and July 10, 2023 may qualify for relief.
Q: Is this guaranteed relief?
A: No, the IRS has appealed the initial decision in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Q: If the IRS wins its appeal of this case, is it possible, I could still get a refund?
A: Possibly, if the IRS wins its appeal there is a strong possibility this case will be escalated to the Supreme court for further consideration at the highest legal level. If the case goes all the way to the Supreme court, the Supreme court sides with the taxpayer, and your protective refund claim was sent to the IRS before the July 10, 2026 deadline, there is a strong chance you will receive a refund of your previously paid penalties or an abatement of unpaid penalties from this period.
Q: How long before I could get my refund or see my penalties abated?
A: The current timeline is not clear, as mentioned above there are potentially several legal proceedings that will need to be settled before any refunds are issued and once everything is settled legally, individual processing times could vary.
