Two names on one letter tempt people to add the rates. For the month they share, the addition has already been done inside the rule.
Failure to file is five percent of the unpaid tax per month or part of a month. Failure to pay is one half of one percent per month. During a shared month the filing charge is reduced by the payment charge, so the combined charge that month is five percent.
The filing charge stops growing once five months have passed. The payment charge can continue, up to its own cap of twenty five percent. Each charge has that same cap on its own track.
Part of a month still counts. A letter that stacks the full filing rate on top of the payment rate, for a month when both ran, is counting that month twice.
Source. Failure to file is five percent of the unpaid tax per month or part of a month, capped at twenty five percent. The base is tax required to be shown, minus timely payments and refundable credits. After sixty days a minimum table can apply, and the dollar in that table is on the page. Read 29 September 2026 at https://www.irs.gov/payments/failure-to-file-penalty
Source. Failure to pay is one half of one percent per month, capped at twenty five percent. In a shared month the filing charge is reduced by the payment charge. Read 29 September 2026 at https://www.irs.gov/payments/failure-to-pay-penalty
Working out which charge a letter means, and keeping the books that stop the next one, is what happens here. A hearing, an appeal or any filing made on your behalf as your representative belongs with a firm that does that work, and no CPA license sits at this desk either, so signed reports on your statements go elsewhere as well. You'll hear both of those early rather than late. The longer drawing of the limit lives on the disclosures page.
Once you can point at the shared months, the rest of the letter gets calmer. The filing charge has a stopping point. The payment charge may not.
Bring the notice and the months it covers. We will say whether the two charges were stacked or already combined.
The form number and which months the letter lists are the useful part.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.