The Internal Revenue Service will shutter its doors for the third time this summer as part of a series of furlough days. The next day for closure is coming up quickly: Friday, July 5, 2013.
The furloughs are a reaction to the current budget situation, which includes the sequester. On furlough days, the IRS will shut down completely and taxpayers and practitioners will not have access to IRS resources, including the Taxpayer Advocate Service and taxpayer assistance centers. Similarly, calls will not be answered, no returns will be processed or refunds issued and all IRS offices will be closed. You will also not be able to access the “Where’s My Refund?” tool and the Online Payment Agreement.
Some online tools will remain available. Those include the Withholding Calculator, Order A Transcript, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Assistant and the PTIN system for tax professionals.
Some automated phone services will also be available. Those include the Tele-Tax line (1.800.829.4477) which offers recorded messages on about 150 tax topics. The online version can be found here.
Please note that while an earlier message from IRS indicated that the Online Look-up Tool for those needing to repay the first-time homebuyer credit would be available on furlough days, it will be unavailable this go-round. Due to a planned outage, that service will be unavailable beginning Thursday, July 4, 2013, until 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 6, 2013.
It’s also important to be aware that due dates will not be extended as a result of the furloughs: tax-filing and tax payment deadlines will remain in place. Taxpayers should continue to file tax returns and pay taxes due. This includes the extension for taxpayers affected by the Boston Marathon. Since the Treasury Department’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) will operate, payroll and excise tax deposits for businesses can go on as usual.
If you’re counting days for court deadlines (for example, for U.S. Tax Court), furlough days count as normal days: you don’t get any extra time to file.
However, IRS has announced that it will allow taxpayers extra time for certain document requests, including an administrative summons, requests for records in connection with a return examination, review or compliance check, or document requests related to a collection matter if the last day for the request falls on a furlough day. If that happens, you have until the next business day. So, if your deadline is tomorrow, July 4, which would normally roll to the next day or on Friday, July 5, you have until Monday, July 8, to comply (since July 4 is a federal holiday).
How much is this saving taxpayers and costing IRS employees? Each of the furlough days – which is considered an unpaid day and not a holiday – will result in a loss to IRS employees of between $160 to $400 in pay, depending on the employee’s position. For many, the round of cuts follows three years of pay freezes.
How are the furlough days affecting taxpayers and tax professionals? I’ve noticed that wait times are definitely longer this summer. On Monday, I waited more than an hour to get through on the Practitioner Priority Access line. If the feedback on Twitter is any indication, that’s pretty much what it’s been like across the board. That’s significantly longer than the estimated average hold times of nearly 17 minutes in 2012.
That said, I have no complaints once the phones are answered. The quality of customer service – especially on the tax professional side – seems to be far better than that of two years ago. With the exception of one or two calls – and I make a lot of them – most of the calls I’ve made recently ended fairly well. Sometimes, reps even went the extra mile, looking up phone numbers and checking directories for me for specific contact folks when they couldn’t help, rather than passing me along to the next guy. So, not all bad, right? But you definitely need to block in extra time if you’re making calls this summer: at least two more furlough days are planned, one on July 22 and the next on August 30, 2013. The IRS has warned that it could possibly announce one or two additional furlough days if necessary.
