October 18, 2013 The IRS started reopening operations on Oct. 17. Our employees are reporting back to work, and we are assessing the impact of the 16-day shutdown on our national operations. At this point, we know we received a large amount of correspondence during the closure. We know there will be a substantial increase in demand for our phone services and many other operations. On Oct. 17, we started reopening our phone lines and our Taxpayer Assistance Centers, both of which will take time to ramp up to normal operating status. In addition, other business operations have started resuming, including the processing of billions of dollars of refunds for individuals and businesses and honoring transcript and authorization requests from third parties. Given the high demand for services, the IRS encourages taxpayers to wait to call or visit if their issue is not urgent, and to continue to use automated applications on the IRS website, www.IRS.gov, whenever possible. Taxpayers who need immediate assistance are encouraged to visit Taxpayer Assistance Centers in their area or try call centers but should be aware there will be delays. In the days ahead, we will continue assessing the effect of this unprecedented situation on IRS operations, and we will do everything we can to resume our normal operations as quickly as possible so that we can best serve the needs of the American taxpayer. We greatly appreciate the patience of taxpayers and tax professionals during this period. Also see IRS Resumes Operations Following Government Reopening.
