Unanswered calls, backlog of mail: IRS plan for government shutdown
September 29, 2023
By Martha Waggoner, for Journal of Accountancy, September 28, 2023
Calls will go unanswered and mail will get no response under the IRS contingency plan for the first five days of a federal government shutdown. The plan, released Thursday, calls for furloughs of two-thirds of IRS staff if the government shuts down, resulting in "significant harmful impacts" on millions of taxpayers, Treasury said.
The fiscal 2024 Lapsed Appropriations Contingency Plan will go into effect when the IRS is notified that government appropriations have lapsed and that a shutdown is to be initiated. All furloughed IRS employees will be able to return to work, and the Service will resume normal operations, when funds are appropriated. To avoid a shutdown, Congress must approve a budget for fiscal 2024 or a continuing resolution that keeps the government operating temporarily by Saturday, Sept. 30.
If a government shutdown lasts for more than five business days, the IRS human capital officer will coordinate a Service-wide reassessment of the excepted activities.
With the Oct. 16 deadline looming for some 10.5 million individual tax returns on extension, here is a look at IRS operations that would stop and those that would continue under the plan.
Which operations will stop?
The IRS says it will stop all taxpayer services, including answering phone calls. The IRS says it normally answers about 46,000 phone calls per day. The 363 Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs) across the country will also close. During the month of October, TACs provide face-to-face service to about 5,000 taxpayers per day.
Refund processing will stop except in cases of e-filed, error-free returns where the refunds can be direct-deposited automatically.
In addition, the IRS will not respond to paper correspondence (although it will still be able to receive mail deliveries during the shutdown and will process remittances). Taxpayers who send mail to the IRS during this period should expect a longer response delay after the IRS reopens because the correspondence backlog will grow, Treasury said.
All audits and examinations will be put on hold.