Thank you so much for your comprehensive and authoritative response. I am clearly eligible for the disaster relief penalty waiver and have not received (nor do I expect to) an IRS Penalty notification. After my post, I went back into TT and found the area in which I could have (and should have) claimed and received the penalty waiver. It is really buried. Unfortunately I had already submitted my return and scheduled payment for the balance owed. I also determined that options exist - 1040X or 843 (less complicated) should I opt to claim an after-the-fact adjustment. Hopefully, as you suggested, the IRS will in fact "automatically provide filing and penalty relief upon processing the return," ideally prior to the schduled payment date or failing that, shortly thereafter.
I had expected that TT would have proactively asked the question as to whether or not the taxpayer lived in a disaster relief zone given the number of taxpayers impacted in 2022. It did not. I only discovered the penalty after submission when I quick-scanned the actual schedules submitted and noticed the penalty as calculated by TT.
Thanks again!
