While the government shutdown is over and tax season begins today, it will take the IRS a long time to recover.
The IRS is weeks behind training new hires and has 5 million pieces of mail to answer. During the shutdown, taxpayers and tax professionals had to send all requests by U.S. Mail because in-person taxpayer assistance centers, fax lines and phone systems were closed.
Answering letters is not all the IRS has to tackle. Everything put on hold in addition to the normal workload will make wait times exceptionally long during tax season. IRS staff also need to contend with new tax laws and new tax forms that will also bog things down.
Taxpayers and tax professionals should expect delays.