SHUTDOWN WILL HALT MANY IRS FUNCTIONS

Shutdown will halt many irs functions. Funding for many government agencies is scheduled to expire at midnight , which would trigger a partial shutdown of the federal government. The IRS is effected by the shutdown because it is not already funded through September 2019. Temporary funding for the IRS was enacted in the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018, Division D of P.L. 115-56, and extended up to Dec 22 by P.L. 115-90. Congressional negotiators are currently working on a continuing spending resolution that would fund the federal government through Feb 8th. Shutdown will halt many IRS functions.

In anticipation of a lapse in funding, Treasury in late November issued a fiscal year 2019 "Lapsed Appropriations Contingency Plan that governs what will happen at the IRS during a government shutdown--but only for a limited time. Certain IRS activities will continue during a shutdown, including activities already funded. The plan anticipates that preparation for the 2019 filing season will not be affected by the shutdown. but the shutdown will halt many IRS functions.

The plan identifies 9,946 IRS employees as "excepted/exempt" employees who would not be furloughed. The rest of the IRS's 79,868 employees would be furloughed, meaning they will be put on leave of absence without pay. Certain IRS activities will continue during the shutdown, including activities already funded outside of the Continuing Appropriations Act and activities necessary for the safety of life or protection of government property. These activities include continuing to complete and test upcoming filing year programs, processing electronic tax returns programs, up to the point of refund, processing paper tax returns though "batching", processing remittances, and maintaining criminal law enforcement programs. Taxpayers who need to file Tax Relief forms best contact a Tax Resolution Company during the crisis as they know how to navigate such events and cut through IRS red tape. They can submit Tax Relief faster, including the IRS Fresh Start Program, and respond to a IRS Wage Garnishment quicker.

However, most IRS activities will stop during the shutdown, These non exempted activities under the plan include, Issuing refunds, processing Form 1040 X amended returns, All Audit functions and examinations of returns, processing paper tax returns that do not include remittances and taxpayer services, such as answering taxpayer questions. Other activities that will stop include Service Center processing after the point of "batching", and processing non disaster relief requests.