If the IRS charged you a failure-to-file or failure-to-pay penalty this year and you already used first-time penalty abatement once, years ago, you need to know whether that door is still open, because a lot of taxpayers assume it’s a one-time-only benefit and stop looking for penalty relief the moment they remember using it before. Can first time penalty abatement be used more than once is one of the most common questions people ask once a new penalty shows up on their account, and the honest answer is that it depends less on whether you’ve used it before and more on when.

First-time penalty abatement (FTA) isn’t actually about a lifetime limit. It’s built around a rolling three-year lookback, and it applies to failure-to-file, failure-to-pay, and failure-to-deposit penalties. The IRS checks whether you filed all required returns on time and paid, or arranged to pay, any tax due for the three tax years before the one with the new penalty. If your compliance history is clean for that window, the fact that you used FTA once outside that window doesn’t disqualify you.

So, Can First-Time Penalty Abatement Be Used More Than Once?

Picture someone who used first-time abatement for a late 2020 return, then filed and paid everything on time from 2021 through 2023, and now has a penalty on their 2024 return. Because the three years before 2024 are clean, they generally still qualify for FTA again, even though they used it once before. What actually disqualifies someone is a penalty, or another instance of FTA, sitting inside that specific three-year lookback window relative to the new penalty year.

What’s Changing: Automatic Penalty Relief

The IRS is in the process of replacing the manual FTA request with an automatic relief program, called the Automatic Exemption from Penalty (AEP), which applies the same underlying three-year clean-history standard but grants the relief automatically rather than requiring a phone call or written request. AEP is being phased in for returns with original due dates on or after January 1, 2027, and the underlying penalty policy it draws on is the same one that governs FTA requests today, which means for now, FTA requests still generally need to be made directly.

What Requesting Penalty Abatement Actually Requires

How the Request Actually Gets Made

Right now, while the manual process is still in place, FTA generally has to be requested rather than granted on its own, either by phone with the IRS or in writing, and it’s typically most effective once the underlying tax for the penalty year is paid or already on a payment arrangement. Being able to point to the specific tax years that make up the clean three-year window, rather than just asserting a good history in general terms, tends to move the request along faster, since the person handling it still has to verify the same filing and payment records either way.

Why This Isn’t the Same as Reasonable Cause Relief

FTA and reasonable cause penalty relief are frequently confused, but they work differently. FTA doesn’t require any explanation of why the return was late; a clean three-year history is enough. Reasonable cause relief, by contrast, requires showing a specific circumstance, such as a serious illness or a natural disaster, that prevented timely filing or payment, and it has no limit on how many times it can be requested if the facts support it. Someone who no longer qualifies for FTA because of their recent history may still qualify for reasonable cause relief if they have a genuine circumstance to point to, and the AICPA has pushed the IRS to keep both options easy to navigate as the rules shift.

Why Choose Zeiders Law Group

Before we request penalty relief for a client, we pull the actual account transcript and run the three-year lookback ourselves rather than relying on what the client remembers about a penalty from years earlier, because people are often wrong about whether their prior relief actually falls inside or outside the disqualifying window. When FTA genuinely isn’t available, we look at reasonable cause as the next option instead of simply telling a Tulsa-area client there’s nothing to be done, since these two forms of relief are evaluated on completely different standards.

If you’re not sure whether your prior use of first-time abatement still counts against you, that’s worth checking before you assume the answer is no. Request a free review of your account and we’ll pull the transcript for you.

Conclusion

First-time penalty abatement can be used more than once, as long as your filing and payment history is clean for the three years before the new penalty, which means the real question isn’t whether you’ve used it before, it’s whether your recent history still qualifies. Getting a clear picture of that history, rather than guessing, is what determines whether penalty relief is still on the table for resolving this year’s balance.

Got a New IRS Penalty and Used FTA Before? Contact Zeiders Law Group to find out if you still qualify for penalty relief.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many years do I have to wait before using first-time penalty abatement again?

There’s no fixed waiting period. What matters is whether your filing and payment history is clean for the three tax years immediately before the year with the new penalty, regardless of when you last used FTA.

Does first-time penalty abatement remove interest too?

No. FTA removes the qualifying penalty itself, but interest that accrued on the unpaid balance, including interest on the penalty while it was assessed, generally still applies.

What’s the difference between first-time abatement and reasonable cause penalty relief?

FTA is based only on a clean three-year compliance history and requires no explanation. Reasonable cause relief requires documenting a specific circumstance, like illness or a disaster, that caused the late filing or payment, and it can be requested repeatedly if the facts support it.

Will requesting penalty abatement trigger an audit?

No. A penalty abatement request is a separate administrative process from an audit and doesn’t by itself increase your audit risk.

Does the new automatic penalty relief program replace first-time abatement completely?

It’s being phased in to apply automatically using a similar three-year standard, starting with returns due on or after January 1, 2027. Until it’s fully in place, the standard FTA request process still applies.