Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.— The sharp budget cuts of sequestration, combined with the 16-day government shutdown, have forced the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to delay the start of the tax filing season, a move which will harm taxpayers, businesses and the U.S. economy, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers said today.

The IRS budget has been cut by $1 billion, or roughly 10 percent, in the last two years and its workforce has 8,000 fewer employees than just one year ago. Now, the IRS is struggling to recover from the government shutdown, when approximately 90 percent of the IRS workforce was furloughed, preceded by a forced closure of the IRS for three days due to sequestration cuts.

“This delay is further evidence that the crisis approach to budgeting, which resulted in sequestration cuts and a government shutdown, is doing serious damage to the economy and the American people,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “Forcing a delay in the tax filing season prevents taxpayers from getting their refunds on time and disrupts our nation’s revenue stream.”

The IRS today announced a delay of approximately one to two weeks to the start of the 2014 filing season to allow adequate time to program and test tax processing systems following the 16-day federal government closure. The shutdown put the IRS nearly three weeks behind its tight timetable for being ready to start the 2014 filing season, an IRS news release said.

“Many Americans plan for and rely on their tax refunds by a certain date and this delay will be a harsh blow,” Kelley said. “Meanwhile, if the sequester continues, it will likely lead to additional days of unpaid furloughs and more interruptions and more delays for taxpayers.”

The IRS is asking taxpayers to wait to call or visit unless a matter is urgent. The IRS said it is seeing heavy demand on its toll-free telephone lines, walk-in sites and other services from taxpayers and tax practitioners.

During the closure, the IRS received 400,000 pieces of correspondence, on top of the 1 million items already being processed before the shutdown.

“Sequestration cuts have cut the IRS budget to the bone. That makes it very difficult for IRS to catch up on the 19 days lost to the shutdown and the sequester,” said Kelley. “This backlog of work hurts victims of identity theft, taxpayers trying to be compliant but awaiting responses, businesses that rely on the IRS for a host of services and, now, taxpayers who will have to wait longer for their refunds.”

“When taxpayers want to know why their refunds are delayed, they need to know it is because of a failure to fund the agency that issues them,” she said.

As the nation’s largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.