Government Shutdown Would Cause Tax Filing Nightmare, CPAs Warn IRS

CPAs are warning Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Danny Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that a government shutdown during the tax filing season will wreak havoc on IRS operations and cause headaches for tax preparers.

“Past experience has taught us that an IRS shutdown, especially between now and April 15, 2024, will have dire consequences to the IRS, taxpayers and their practitioners,” Blake Vickers, chair of the AICPA Tax Executive Committee, told Werfel and Yellen in a letter. “The longer the shutdown, the larger the backlog and other challenges become.”

H.R. 6363, the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act of 2024, was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov. 16.

However, as H.R. 6363 is a Continuing Resolution, it extends government funding for the IRS until Feb. 2, 2024 — less than two weeks after the start of the 2023 tax filing season, Vickers told Werfel and Yellen.

The New York Times reported that the 35-day Trump shutdown in 2018 “meant that a ‘shocking’ number of taxpayer calls and letters” went unanswered, even after the shutdown ended, Senate Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said then.

Core tax administration functions such as Taxpayer Assistance Center operations, some refund processing and responses to paper correspondence from taxpayers would abruptly halt in the event of a shutdown, Vickers said.