The IRS also said it will waive $1 billion in penalties for 4.7 million filers to cover cases where collection notices weren’t sent during that time.

Commissioner Danny Werfel said the tax agency thought it would be unfair to suddenly hit those taxpayers with a collection notice seemingly out of the blue.

“The IRS should be looking out for taxpayers, and this penalty relief is a common-sense approach to help people in this situation,” he said.

Relief will go to taxpayers with assessed taxes under $100,000 who were in the IRS collection process or issued a due notice between Feb. 5, 2022, and Dec. 7, 2023.

Some taxpayers who already paid their balance might even end up with a refund, the IRS said.

The agency said most of the beneficiaries make under $400,000 a year.

The average relief waiver is worth $206.

Even those who don’t qualify for the waiver can seek other IRS relief programs, the agency said.

Mr. Werfel said the waiver is part of an attempt to get the tax agency back on pre-pandemic footing.

Taxes were still due and filers should have received an initial notice of taxes due, but the Biden administration suspended more than a dozen automated collection letters and notices.

The agency said the pandemic created a massive backlog of millions of unprocessed returns and sending out collection notices could sow confusion.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.