Learn how to get a pay off of when others are involved in the assertion of the trust fund recovery penalty.

There is a huge gap in the IRS system in dealing with trust fund recovery penalties.

The IRS does not cross-reference other Social Security numbers in regarding to the trust fund taxes of 6672.

So if one person makes a payment on their trust fund recovery penalty and you have been asserted the same penalty, IRS has no way of cross matching that payment to your liability.

This is a real hardship because somebody in fact could’ve paid off the liability and you have absolutely no way of knowing.

 I am a former IRS agent and teaching instructor with Internal Revenue Service and here’s what you need to do to deal with the aforementioned situation.

8.25.1.5.5 (12-07-2012)

Disclosure that must be made by the IRS

1. IRC 6103(e)(9) provides for disclosure of information where more than one person is held liable for the TFRP.

Once a person is determined to be liable then, upon their written request, the IRS may disclose, in writing, the name of any other person determined to be liable, whether the IRS has attempted to collect the penalty from the other liable person, the general nature of the collection activities and the amount collected.

A. A person is determined to be liable for purposes of IRC 6103(e)(9) when that person is assessed.

Therefore, no disclosure is permitted until after the person is assessed.


B. If Appeals receives a disclosure request with ONLY a request for the names of liable persons, the written request may be responded to once an assessment is made. Appeals should make no disclosures concerning the collection actions, since we are not in a position to know everything that may have occurred.

Refer those requests to the Disclosure or Collection function


 For more information, refer to IRM 21.1.3.2, General Disclosure Guidelines, and for a full discussion, refer to IRM 11.3.40, Disclosure of Official Information, Disclosures Involving Trust Fund Recovery Penalty Assessments.