IRS to Keep Normal Operations for Five Days in Shutdown Plan (2)

The IRS will keep up normal operations for a week if policy makers can’t reach a deal by Wednesday on funding the government, according to an agency contingency plan released Monday.

Democrats’ 2022 tax-and-climate law gave the IRS tens of billions of dollars to modernize and ramp up enforcement. While Republicans have clawed back most of the enforcement funds, the remaining monies are outside the annual appropriations process and can be used until Sept. 30, 2031.

Those funds will help keep the agency open if the government shuts down. This plan is for the first five days of a lapse of appropriations. The document was first posted Monday afternoon, but within the hour the link wasn’t working. A document with an updated cover page was re-uploaded later in the day.

President Donald Trump is set to meet congressional leaders at the White House later this afternoon on the standoff. Republicans want a straight extension of current funding, while Democrats are demanding a batch of fiscal policy changes centered on health care.

The looming shutdown comes as the IRS works to implement Trump’s multitrillion-dollar tax-and-spending package and ahead of the Oct. 15 deadline for individuals and companies that plan on filing their taxes with extensions.

During the last government shutdown, in late 2018 and early 2019, many IRS operations stopped. However, the agency still planned to issue tax refund checks had the shutdown extended into the tax-filing season.

A quarter of agency employees took the Trump administration’s incentives to leave the federal government, resulting in a significant drop from about 100,000 employees the IRS had earlier this year. The agency has started to call back and hire more employees as a result of the exodus.

The Office of Management and Budget also told agencies ahead of a potential shutdown that they should consider a reduction-in-force in programs not legally required to be continued. The Treasury plan doesn’t mention a reduction-in-force.