Tuesday, Oct. 15, is the filing deadline for the roughly 12 million Americans who received an extension on their 2012 taxes. And having 90 percent of its staff furloughed in the partial government shutdown doesn't mean the IRS doesn't want your money.
"The IRS is shut down, but the tax law is never shut down," says Joshua Blank, professor of tax practice and faculty director of New York University Law School's Graduate Tax Program.
One of the few things the Internal Revenue Service is actually doing right now is cashing checks — but it's not issuing them. Don't expect a refund until the government reopens. Most of the agency's other functions are also suspended.
"The IRS is not examining any tax returns for deficiencies," Blank says. "It's not conducting audits. The IRS is not answering phones to answer questions from taxpayers."
The same goes for the media. No one answers the IRS's media line, other than a recorded message about the shutdown.
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So instead, I called Margaret Richardson, the former head of the IRS who was in charge during the last government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996.
This time, Richardson is watching the current shutdown from outside government. She says, "I have to confess, I'm really incredulous that it could happen again."
In the 1990s, she says, the IRS office was eerily quiet with so many workers away. There was plenty of black humor among those who remained. But that shutdown came during the holidays. It was a slow time for the agency.
Today is different. Oct.15 has become a big filing day each year.
"I think today's shutdown is potentially much more damaging since it comes as the 2012 filing season is coming to an end," Richardson says.
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