TXLonghorn

Reasonable cause is part of the streamlined agreement. First time abate is for a one time failure to file/failure to pay. It requires a three year clean compliance history (which if he has not filed obviously would not qualify for). Moreover it's not a path to compliance. It's just a remedy for certain penalties.

Willfullness is not impossible to determine. There are legal guidelines promulgated through Treasury regulations, TC Memos, and hundreds of tax court cases.

TXLonghorn

When the taxpayer lives abroad willfullness is hard to prove. He lives and works in the UK and has ties there. It would make sense that he has foreign accounts and assets there for perfectly legitimate reasons and not solely to evade taxes. Compare with someone who lives in the US and has an undisclosed account in the Caymans. He has no ties to the Caymans other than his account. It wouldn't be too hard in that case to find willfulness.

MidAtlantic

I didn't say it was easy or hard. I said we had no facts (and certainly the typical "help I've just discovered I should have been filing" blind panic is absent).

Cook_County

Reasonable cause sits in the statute. The IRS streamlined procedures have no standing under law, as they are not law.