CPAs are warning Inner Income Service Commissioner Danny Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen {that a} authorities shutdown throughout the tax submitting season will wreak havoc on IRS operations and trigger complications for tax preparers.
“Previous expertise has taught us that an IRS shutdown, particularly between now and April 15, 2024, may have dire penalties to the IRS, taxpayers and their practitioners,” Blake Vickers, chair of the AICPA Tax Government Committee, informed Werfel and Yellen in a letter. “The longer the shutdown, the bigger the backlog and different challenges turn into.”
H.R. 6363, the Additional Persevering with Appropriations and Different Extensions Act of 2024, was signed into legislation by President Joe Biden on Nov. 16.
Nonetheless, as H.R. 6363 is a Persevering with Decision, it extends authorities funding for the IRS till Feb. 2, 2024 — lower than two weeks after the beginning of the 2023 tax submitting season, Vickers informed Werfel and Yellen.
The New York Occasions reported that the 35-day Trump shutdown in 2018 “meant {that a} ‘stunning’ variety of taxpayer calls and letters” went unanswered, even after the shutdown ended, Senate Majority Chief Steny Hoyer, D-Md., mentioned then.
Core tax administration capabilities reminiscent of Taxpayer Help Middle operations, some refund processing and responses to paper correspondence from taxpayers would abruptly halt within the occasion of a shutdown, Vickers mentioned.