Start with the honest answer, because every other page in this cluster is about penalties and this one is not: interest on tax you owe is charged by law, and the IRS has almost no power to remove it. It is not softened by reasonable cause, it is not covered by first-time abatement, and it survives even when every penalty on the account is wiped out. What does exist is a short list of specific doors — three of them — and this page separates them, because readers constantly conflate three different kinds of interest that follow three different rules.
General tax information, not tax or legal advice. Door 1 below is automatic. Doors 2 and 3 are statutory exceptions with strict tests — if your facts do not fit the test, no phrasing of the request will make them fit.
Interest runs on penalties as well as on tax. When a penalty is abated — through first-time abatement, reasonable cause, or any other ground — the interest that was charged on that penalty is adjusted away with it. You do not file anything extra and you do not ask separately; it is a mechanical consequence of the penalty disappearing. If a penalty on your account was abated but the interest attached to it is still showing, that is an account error to raise, not an abatement to request.
This door is also the limit of the good news. The interest charged on the underlying tax belongs to Door 2 and Door 3 only.
The one true interest-abatement provision lets the IRS abate interest on a deficiency (or underpayment) to the extent it is attributable to an IRS officer or employee being erroneous or dilatory in performing a ministerial or managerial act. Every element of the test must be met:
Use Form 843 (Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement). Check box a on line 7, complete lines 1–4, and on line 8 state: the type of tax, the date of the IRS’s first written notification to you, the exact interest period you are claiming, the circumstances of the error or delay, and why denying relief would be “grossly unfair.” A signed letter containing all the same elements is also accepted. Keep the claim factual and chronological — each month of delay should map to a specific IRS act, because that mapping is the entire case.
The least-known door is not an abatement request at all; it is an automatic suspension. If you filed your return on time and the IRS fails to send you a notice stating the additional tax liability within 18 months after the later of the filing date or the return’s due date, interest on that liability is suspended starting when the 18 months run out and ending 21 days after the IRS finally sends the notice. You do not apply for it: either the suspension shows in the IRS’s interest computation or you point to the two dates — return filed, notice sent — and ask for the account to be recomputed. It forgives only interest inside that window, not the first 18 months — but on old, slow examination cases the suspended tail can be real money.
A denied §6404(e) claim follows a different road from a denied penalty abatement. There is no Appeals-conference path for it. Review lies only in the U.S. Tax Court under §6404(h), on an abuse-of-discretion standard, by petition filed within 180 days of the IRS’s final determination. That contrast matters if you hold both kinds of denial at once: a rejected penalty request goes to Appeals on the route described in the Form 12203 walkthrough, while a rejected interest claim is a court filing with a hard deadline — one more reason interest claims are usually built with professional help.
For orientation on where the interest in a typical case comes from in the first place, see the failure-to-pay penalty and failure-to-file penalty pages: interest under §6601 runs on the unpaid tax from the original due date, which is why it so often dwarfs the relief available against it.
Can the IRS waive or reduce interest? On the tax itself, almost never. Interest is statutory under §6601, and lack of funds or a good reason for the underlying penalty does not touch it. The real exceptions are narrow: interest attributable to unreasonable IRS error or delay in a ministerial or managerial act may be abated under §6404(e)(1), and interest is suspended under §6404(g) when the IRS misses its 18-month notice window after a timely return.
What qualifies for interest abatement? All of the §6404(e)(1) conditions together: a timely claim; an income, estate, gift or covered excise tax (never employment tax); an IRS error or delay occurring after the IRS’s first written contact with you; no significant contribution by you or your representative; and the delay must be unreasonable and tied to a ministerial or managerial act. Only the interest for the delay period itself can be abated.
How do I request interest abatement? File Form 843: check box a on line 7, complete lines 1–4, and use line 8 to state the tax type, the date of the first written IRS notification, the exact interest period claimed, the circumstances of the error or delay, and why denying relief would be grossly unfair. A signed letter with the same elements is also accepted.
If my penalty is abated, is the interest on it removed too? Yes — automatically. Interest charged on a penalty is adjusted away when the penalty itself is abated; no separate request is needed. What remains is the interest on the underlying tax, which abatement of a penalty never removes.
Can I appeal if the IRS denies interest abatement? Not to IRS Appeals. Denial of a §6404(e) claim can be reviewed only by the U.S. Tax Court under §6404(h), under an abuse-of-discretion standard, and the petition is due within 180 days of the IRS’s final determination. That is a different, stricter route than the Appeals path for denied penalty abatement.
General tax information, not tax or legal advice. Sources: IRC §§6601, 6404(e)(1) and 6404(g)–(h); Treas. Reg. §301.6404-2 (ministerial and managerial acts); IRS “Interest Abatement” guidance and Topic 653; Form 843 and its instructions (line 7/line 8 claim mechanics); IRM 20.2.7. Currency verified 2026-10-23.