Partner liable for partnership penalty?

Anybody have any experience with this.... LLC partnership filed their partnership return late for three consecutive years. The returns were self-prepared by one of the partners. The partnership has since dissolved and filed a final return. The partner who prepared the returns (technically a former partner at this point) is getting notices for late filing penalties with intent to collect. First time abatement may take care of one of the years but I don't think they are eligible for 80-35 relief for the other two years. Does the IRS come after the individual for the partnership penalty? I know they will aggressively pursue the individual over business payroll taxes but this is a different animal. When the partnership dissolved there were no assets and nothing was distributed out.

Does first time abate work here? If you have not filed for multiple years do you say I want first time abate for the first one and they will note the others status with all late and they still grant it!??

I have successful requested FTA for clients in that situation Jon and it was granted for the oldest non-compliant tax year. The taxpayer had 3 years of compliance previous to the oldest non-compliant tax year, which I think is all that matters.

The partner who prepared the returns (technically a former partner at this point) is getting notices for late filing penalties with intent to collect.

I assume you mean these notices are actually issued to the LLC in the LLC’s EIN.

Does the IRS come after the individual for the partnership penalty?

The short answer is no. The long answer is that they could try it on some legal grounds, like transferee liability, etc.

In this situation, don’t pay it. Do nothing…or just draft a letter indicating that the entity is dissolved and has no assets.