ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0With Congress at odds over funding again, a partial government shutdown is possible as we head into the weekend. That means there could be federal workers furloughed, including at the Internal Revenue Service, right as taxpayers start to file.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Congress has until midnight on Friday to strike a deal to avoid a partial government shutdown
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In the event of a shutdown, the impacts for taxpayers are expected to be minimal
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For anyone that wants to e-file, that system will still be available, but refunds might be delayed. Paper filers could also see some delays
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Any IRS services where you need help from a human will be impacted most if there is a shutdown<\/p>\n
In the event of a shutdown, the affects for taxpayers are expected to be minimal. It\u2019s early on \u2014 the IRS just opened to file on Monday \u2014 so there is plenty of time. Also, if you file electronically, like most do, there should not be any big impacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes it unique this time around is that it is in the middle of tax season,\u201d said Charlotte Erdmann, the founding attorney at Orlando Tax Law, when asked about a shutdown.<\/p>\n
Erdmann said if the government shuts down, the biggest issue at the IRS will be for anyone that needs human help.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means that all the people who are having trouble with the IRS getting all of these tons of letters, getting collection letters with the automated collection system, if there is no one we can call to resolve that.”<\/p>\n
That also includes possible delays for the nearly 10 percent of people who file their returns on paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are paper filing, nothing is done, it is sitting in a bin until everyone comes back into the office,\u201d said Vicki Simmons-Hinz, a CPA and Tax Partner at KSDT.<\/p>\n
For the more than 90 percent of Americans that file electronically, there should not be major disruptions. \u201cGenerally, everybody e-files their tax return, so electronic filing doesn\u2019t stop. That still continues to go through. Where people may see a delay is in the timing of their refund,\u201d Simmons-Hinz said.<\/p>\n
The National Taxpayers Union is keeping a close eye on how this will all play out in Washington. \u201cI anticipate if there is a shutdown, it will be a very brief one. The IRS and Treasury Department are not really the subject of debate here, it is of course, the Department of Homeland Security, so I think that Congress will hash out a deal in order to get the Treasury Department, the IRS funded and make sure tax filing season goes as smoothly as possible,\u201d said Brandon Arnold, the National Taxpayers Union Executive Vice President.<\/p>\n
Shutdown or not, the deadlines remain the same, and you still have until April 15 to get your taxes filed. \u201cI don\u2019t think the IRS is going to be facing any kind of major backlog, if they are facing a backlog, as they often do, it i think will be more of the routine variety,\u201d Arnold said.<\/p>\n
Congress has to strike a deal by Friday at midnight to avoid a partial government shutdown. Regardless of how it shakes out in Washington, experts recommend you file your taxes as early as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0With Congress at odds over funding again, a partial government shutdown is possible as we head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12109,12111,3140,274,66938,115,1335,139,141,140,99,9429,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-136937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-all-markets-rank-everywhere","9":"tag-app-for-your-consideration","10":"tag-app-local-state-politics","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-around-the-us","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-orange-county","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-sarah-winkelmann","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}