Foreign Late Filing Notices: Effective Responses for Penalty Abatement
Reasonable Cause, First Time Abatement, Reliance on a Professional, Exercising Ordinary Care and Prudence
Course Details
- smart_display Format
Live Online with Live Q&A
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
Intermediate
- work Practice Area
Tax Preparer
- event Date
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
110 minutes
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BARBRI is a NASBA CPE sponsor and this 110-minute webinar is accredited for 2.0 CPE credits.
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BARBRI is an IRS-approved continuing education provider offering certified courses for Enrolled Agents (EA) and Tax Return Preparers (RTRP).
This webinar will examine the current state of IRS responses to international taxpayers' requests for penalty relief for late filing of foreign information returns. Our astute panel of international tax experts will review what constitutes reasonable cause, when first-time abatement applies, and will offer tips for working with the IRS to eliminate or lessen the penalties frequently and automatically assessed to international taxpayers.
Mr. Glaser has over 30 years of tax experience with the IRS. He spent the first twenty years as a Senior Trial Attorney for the Service’s Office of Chief Counsel’s Small Business and Self-Employed (SBSE) Division. For the next 10 years, he served as the Laguna Niguel Associate Area Counsel for the IRS Office of Chief Counsel’s Large Business and International (LB&I) Division. He also worked a 6-month stint as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Office of the United States Attorney, Central District of California, Tax Division in Los Angeles. As a Senior Trial Attorney for the IRS Office of Chief Counsel’s Small Business and Self-Employed Division, Mr. Glaser was responsible for providing legal advice to the IRS on tax audits and collection matters. He also assisted in implementing the IRS’s Offshore Compliance Initiative and the Offshore Credit Card Program. He served as one of the initial eleven nationwide IRS Office of Chief Counsel FBAR Coordinators
Mr. Roberts is a firm Partner practicing in the areas of Tax Controversy, Estate and Gift Tax Litigation, White Collar and Government Regulatory Litigation, Income Tax and Business Planning, and Cryptocurrency and Digital Assets. He is Board Certified in Tax Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Mr. Roberts is a tax litigator and trusted advisor with extensive experience assisting both U.S. and international clients in successfully resolving various federal tax controversies, including civil and criminal liability cases. His expertise covers a broad spectrum of issues, such as tax audits, investigations, litigation, appeals, and collection matters.
Mr. Agostino is the founder and president of Agostino & Associates, P.C. Prior to entering private practice, he was an attorney with the Internal Revenue Service’s District Counsel in Springfield, Illinois and Newark, New Jersey. Mr. Agostino also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney, where he prosecuted primarily criminal tax cases. As an adjunct professor, he taught tax controversy at Seton Hall University W. Paul Stillman School of Business and Rutgers School of Law. Mr. Agostino also served as the co-director of the Rutgers Federal Tax Law Clinic.
International tax practitioners routinely receive late and non-filing notices for multinational clients. With the number of required forms, 5471, 8938, 3520, and 3520-A to name a few, reporting obligations and filing deadlines are easily missed. Penalties for noncompliance are steep; most familiar is the minimum penalty of $10,000 for even non-willful FBAR violations.
The IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service included the IRS' assessment of international penalties on its Most Serious Problems list, stating: "The IRS's treatment of IRC Sections 6038 and 6038A foreign information reporting penalties as systemically assessable is legally unsupportable, administratively problematic, and imposes costs, delays, and stress for taxpayers." What is the best response to these notices for the most favorable and efficient outcome?
The Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) does offer first-time penalty abatement relief for certain foreign information returns; however, the manual includes additional stipulations for foreign reporting not required for domestic relief. Reasonable cause is also noted in the IRM and contains the other requirement that the taxpayer exercised "ordinary business care and prudence." Fortunately, the courts and the IRS often disagree on penalty assessments. However, this road can be time-consuming and costly. International tax advisers need to know what defenses are readily available to decrease the penalties routinely imposed on numerous international reporting forms.
Listen as our panel of international tax experts reviews the current state of penalty relief for foreign reporting noncompliance, including how to appropriately respond to notices received to mitigate the extraordinary burden these assessments place on taxpayers and their advisers.
I. Late filing notices: introduction
II. Applicable forms
III. Penalties assessed
IV. Related regulations
V. Defenses
A. Reasonable cause
B. First-time penalty abatement
C. Other responses
D. Appeals
E. Court
VI. Relevant cases
VII. Delinquent international information return submission procedures
VIII. Best practices
The panel will cover these and other critical issues:
- When is reliance on a professional a reasonable defense to foreign late filing penalties?
- When is first-time penalty abatement relief available for late-filed foreign information returns?
- How does a taxpayer meet the ordinary business care and prudence standard?
- How should tax practitioners respond when the IRS denies a request for penalty relief?
Learning Objectives
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Understand foreign information reporting requirements
- Establish effective responses to IRS notices for late filings and other issues with foreign filings
- Determine when reasonable cause is a reasonable response to the IRS
- Identify when first-time penalty relief is available
- Review recent cases dealing with foreign filings
- Ascertain pre-penalty resolution options
- Field of Study: Taxes
- Level of Knowledge: Intermediate
- Advance Preparation: None
- Teaching Method: Seminar/Lecture
- Delivery Method: Group-Internet (via computer)
- Attendance Monitoring Method: Attendance is monitored electronically via a participant's PIN and through a series of attendance verification prompts displayed throughout the program
- Prerequisite:
Three years+ business or public firm experience preparing complex tax forms and schedules, supervising other preparers or accountants. Specific knowledge and understanding of international taxation including residency determination, foreign entity classifications, application of treaty benefits, as well as GILTI, Subpart F, and the related Section 250 deductions.
Strafford Publications, Inc. is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of Accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE Credits. Complaints regarding registered sponsons may be submitted to NASBA through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org.
Strafford is an IRS-approved continuing education provider offering certified courses for Enrolled Agents (EA) and Tax Return Preparers (RTRP).
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