AICPA warns shutdown‑forced IRS furloughs would disrupt filing season

A government shutdown that forces the IRS to furlough employees would seriously disrupt the 2026 filing season and harm taxpayers, the AICPA cautioned Thursday in a letter urging the agency to maintain full operations.

“The consequences of furloughing IRS employees, reducing taxpayer and practitioner services, and introducing the prospect for prolonged or widespread technology disruptions could prove to be detrimental to the success of the filing season currently underway and the effective and timely implementation of recent legislative changes,” the AICPA said in the letter, sent to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who also serves as acting IRS commissioner, and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano.

The Associated Press and other media outlets reported Thursday evening — about 24 hours before government funding was set to expire — that a deal had been struck to fund most of the government, including the IRS, until September. Later Thursday, however, the Senate delayed a vote on the deal, and the House isn’t expected to take it up before Monday, ABC News reported.

Although the IRS shut down once previously during the April filing season, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has never experienced a lapse in appropriations in April, the AICPA said. In addition to the pandemic closure, a government shutdown occurred in 2019, ending just before the start of tax season, the letter said.

“A recent Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration memorandum illustrates that the IRS’s inventory levels have still not recovered from the pandemic over five years later, with nearly double the total inventories from December 2019 to December 2024 and nearly triple the total inventories from December 2019 to December 2025, the latter of which demonstrates the impact of staffing losses and a government shutdown in 2025,” the AICPA said in the letter.

And although the 2019 government shutdown ended before tax season began, it still “placed significant stress on the entire tax system, including the inability to resolve automated IRS collection notices, unreliable online account access, disruptions to electronic tax payment services, difficulties processing critical tax documents, and backlogged IRS phone lines once the shutdown ceased,” the letter said.

Full staffing during any shutdown “is critical not only for a successful filing season but for a filing season that does not create additional tax administrative problems, harm taxpayers, condense practitioner workload, and further engross the IRS in backlogs for years to come,” the letter said.

In the most recent government shutdown, which began Oct. 1 and ended Nov. 12, the IRS kept its 74,000 employees working for the first five days. After that, the IRS furloughed almost half its workforce and closed most of its operations.

AICPA RESOURCE

Navigating the Government Shutdown

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Martha Waggoner at Martha.Waggoner@aicpa-cima.com.