How to Fill Out and Submit Connecticut Form DRS-PW: Reasonable Cause

Connecticut Form DRS-PW is the petition you file with the Department of Revenue Services to ask the state to remove a civil penalty assessed for late filing or late payment. Before the form is worth filling out, three conditions must be true: you have paid the underlying tax and all accrued interest in full, you have no outstanding Connecticut returns, and you are within one year of the date on the penalty notice. Miss any one of these and DRS will return the request without reading it.

The form itself is short. The work is in Part III, where five narrative questions ask you to prove “reasonable cause” — that specific circumstances beyond your control kept you from complying despite ordinary care. What follows is what to gather, how to complete each part, how to submit, and what to do if DRS says no.

Three Prerequisites That Decide Whether DRS Will Even Read It

DRS enforces three gates. Fail any one and the request comes back unreviewed.

  • All tax and interest paid. Interest cannot be waived under any circumstances, so both the original tax and accrued interest must be settled before you submit the form. Check your balance on myconneCT first.
  • All outstanding returns filed. Unfiled Connecticut returns for any period will sink the request regardless of how strong the explanation is.
  • Submitted within one year. The form must reach DRS no later than one year from the date DRS sent the first penalty notice, or one year from the date you filed a return that reported the penalty.1Connecticut State Department of Revenue Services. Penalty Waiver Request, Offer of Compromise or Protest

These catch most filers off guard. People put their energy into writing a compelling story and forget DRS won’t open the envelope if tax or interest is still outstanding.

Filling Out Form DRS-PW

The form is available on the DRS forms page at portal.ct.gov or through myconneCT. Every field must be completed; an incomplete form is returned without review.2Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. Form DRS-PW Request for Waiver of Civil Penalty

Part I: Taxpayer Identification

Enter your name or business name, mailing address, physical address, and a daytime phone number. For the identification field, individuals contesting a personal income tax penalty use their Social Security Number. Businesses use their Connecticut Tax Registration Number, and should also include the Federal Employer Identification Number if the tax type is tied to one. The name and ID number must match what DRS has on file. Mismatches slow processing.

Part II: Penalty Details

List each tax type you are asking DRS to waive (income tax, sales and use tax, corporation business tax, withholding tax, and so on), the specific period (quarter or year), and the exact dollar amount of the penalty for each. Pull these figures directly from the DRS notice or your myconneCT account. Each period gets its own line; do not lump them together. Also note the documentation you are attaching for each.

One point worth checking before you list amounts: when late filing and late payment overlap, only one penalty applies, and the late payment penalty takes precedence. Late filing is a flat $50. Late payment is 10% of the tax due and unpaid. Negligence and fraud penalties from audit assessments run 10% and 25% of the underpayment respectively.3Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. Connecticut Form DRS-PW Request for Waiver of Civil Penalty

Part III: The Five Questions

This is where the waiver is won or lost. Answers need to be specific, chronological, and matched to documents. Emotional appeals and general complaints will not help.

  • Why were you unable to comply? Give specific dates, locations, and events. “I was hospitalized from March 3 through April 20” works. “I had health issues” does not.
  • How did you handle other financial obligations during the same period? DRS uses this to test ordinary business care. If the mortgage and credit cards got paid on time but the tax did not, explain why the tax was different.
  • What did you do once circumstances changed? Show that you moved promptly to come back into compliance — filed the return, made the payment, or contacted DRS.
  • How did you comply within a reasonable time? A long gap between the triggering event ending and the payment actually being made needs explaining.
  • Anything else DRS should know? Use this for context that does not fit the other answers, such as a clean prior compliance history.

Sign and date the declaration at the bottom.

What Reasonable Cause Actually Means

Connecticut grants waivers only when the failure to pay or file was due to reasonable cause and was not intentional or the result of neglect. The standard is whether a person exercising ordinary business care and prudence would have been unable to meet the obligation under the same circumstances.4Connecticut eRegulations. Connecticut Code Sec. 12-3a-1 – Waiver of Certain Penalties Financial hardship alone does not meet this bar. Forgetting a deadline does not either.

The regulations give examples that qualify:

  • Loss of records from fire, flood, or other casualty, where there was not enough time before the due date to reconstruct them.
  • Death or serious illness of the person responsible for preparing the return, or of a member of that person’s immediate family. If more than one person shares responsibility for preparing returns, this exception does not apply.
  • A mathematical error that caused an underpayment, where the taxpayer exercised ordinary business care to avoid the error.
  • A good-faith effort to comply without professional advice, where the taxpayer did not carelessly or recklessly disregard the law.

A pattern of late filings or late payments makes any waiver request considerably harder. DRS reads repeated noncompliance as evidence that ordinary care was not being exercised, regardless of the explanation for the current penalty.

Documents to Attach

The reviewer is comparing your narrative against documents. Gaps between what you say and what you can prove weaken the request. Common attachments:

  • Hospital or medical records showing dates of treatment or incapacity.
  • Death certificates where the delinquency followed a death in the family.
  • Insurance claims, fire reports, or police reports documenting destruction of records.
  • Letters from tax professionals confirming errors or delays outside your control.
  • Copies of the DRS notices showing the penalty amounts being contested.

Organize attachments in the order Part III references them, and label each one so the reviewer does not have to guess which question it supports.

How and Where to Submit

Three options:

  • myconneCT. Submit the form and upload supporting documents through the DRS online portal at portal.ct.gov/DRS-myconneCT. Availability depends on the tax type.
  • Mail. Send the completed form and attachments to: Department of Revenue Services, Operations Bureau/Penalty Waiver, PO Box 5089, Hartford, CT 06102-5089. Certified mail with return receipt gives you proof of delivery and a postmark date, which is what matters for the one-year deadline.
  • Fax. 860-297-5727, attention Operations Bureau/Penalty Waiver. Keep the confirmation page.

Authorizing Someone Else to File

If a tax professional, attorney, or family member is handling the request for you, Connecticut requires its own power of attorney, Form LGL-001. The federal IRS Form 2848 does not authorize anyone to act before Connecticut DRS. On LGL-001, you check the specific acts you are authorizing, and both you and your representative sign. For joint tax matters, both spouses must sign separately. Include the signed LGL-001 with the DRS-PW submission so DRS can communicate with your representative and accept their signature.5Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. Form LGL-001 Power of Attorney

After You Submit

DRS sends a formal determination letter to the address on file stating whether the penalty was waived in full, waived in part, or denied. A denial letter explains why DRS concluded that reasonable cause was not established. DRS does not publish an official processing timeline; expect at least several weeks, longer for larger penalties that require internal committee review.

If DRS Denies the Waiver

A denial is not the end. You can protest the determination to the DRS Appellate Division by filing Form APL-002. The protest must be received within 60 days of the date on the determination letter, or carry a U.S. postmark within that window.1Connecticut State Department of Revenue Services. Penalty Waiver Request, Offer of Compromise or Protest Interest continues to accrue on anything that remains unpaid while the protest is pending.

If the Appellate Division’s final determination still goes against you, you can appeal to the Superior Court for the Judicial District of New Britain within one month of the date on the final determination letter. At that stage, consulting a tax attorney is worth the investment.

When a Waiver Is the Wrong Tool

If the problem is not that the penalty was unfair but that you cannot afford to pay what you owe, Form DRS-PW is not the right form. Connecticut has a separate Offer in Compromise process for taxpayers who do not dispute the assessment but lack the ability to pay. The offer goes to the Bureau Chief of the Compliance Process Group, and the Commissioner may compromise the liability based on doubt as to collectability, doubt as to liability, or both.