Growing IRS Backlog During Shutdown Worries Tax Community (1)

Tax practitioners are becoming increasingly alarmed at the IRS’s growing backlog of work as the partial government shutdown appears to have no end in sight.

The Internal Revenue Service continues to assure taxpayers that despite the shutdown—which began Dec. 22—the 2019 tax filing season will begin on time Jan. 28. But with roughly two of every five agency employees furloughed, practitioners are skeptical about how a historically understaffed and underfunded agency will keep pace as work continues to pile up.

Everything is going to slow down until the IRS can address the work that is being hindered by the ...