That means taxpayers must meet all Internal Revenue Code deadlines even if the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t have a full crew on hand to process the filings.
Recently, I’ve been skipping weekend posting because I’m focusing on moving the ol’ blog to a new hosting service. The one I’ve been using for almost 20 years (since Nov. 14, 2005) is shutting down.
Going through decades of posts has reminded me of how persistent taxes are. I’m not just talking about regularly recurring tax responsibilities, like annual tax return and quarterly estimated tax filings.
I’ve also found old posts on 1099 reporting changes, similar to the 1099-DA and 1099-K issues some taxpayers now face. And then there are all the tax laws (for example estate, capital gains, and rates for high earners) that someone on Capitol Hill always wants to tweak or end or increase.
Tax deadlines are firm even during shutdowns: And, of course, as I’m facing a Sept. 30 shutdown of my original blog site, I’ve run across several government shutdown posts.
Today, in fact, I got a good tax reminder that worth’s sharing again from the 2013 end-of-fiscal-year closure threat.
That post, IRS lays out plan to deal with federal government shutdown, went up on Sept. 30, 2013. When the calendar flipped to October the next day, Uncle Sam did indeed have to stop much of his operations.
If that does happen this coming Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, here’s the tax advice mentioned a dozen years ago that is still true today.
A government shutdown does not override current tax law. So, if you got an extension earlier this year to postpone filing of your 2024 tax return until Oct. 15, a shutdown will not affect that due date in any way.
You are still required to file your extended Form 1040 by Oct. 15.
You won’t get extra time tacked on to the extension deadline to account for any days that Internal Revenue Service staff might not be able to process your return. That’s true even if we do face a shutdown that goes on past the mid-October extension date.
If IRS operations are limited to any degree by a closure, that just means the processing of your extended personal return filing — or any other individual or business tax obligations that might come up during a shutdown — will be delayed at the agency’s end.
Let me repeat that. Underlying tax law remains in full force, even when most of the federal government, including the IRS, shuts down. All taxpayers should meet all their tax responsibilities as normal.
Prior closures, current forecast (hope): The federal closure at the start of the 2014 fiscal year lasted just 17 days. If we must deal with one this year, let’s hope it is as short (or shorter!).
And there is some good news (or not, depending on your tax perspective) about a possible government shutdown starting this week.
A recent Eide Bailly tax roundup curated by Joe Kristan included an item that noted former IRS officials speculate that the agency could make do for a while using the around $22 billion it still has on hand from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act special IRS appropriation.
So, if you’re working on your extended 2024 Form 1040, keep at it. Meanwhile, I’m heading back to work on getting www.DontMessWithTaxes.com moved, fingers crossed, also coincidentally on Oct. 1. That date convergence is yet another reason why Oct. 1 earns this weekend’s By the Numbers recognition.
Finally, if my new blog arrangement isn’t ready by then — I have a LOT of stuff to transfer — you can still find tax posts at my Don’t Mess With Taxes substack.
You also might find these items of interest:
- Longest U.S. government shutdown ever in first Trump administration finally ends after 35 days (January 2019)
- Government shutdown shouldn’t affect IRS handling of your tax return, as long as closure isn’t too long (January 2018)
- National Taxpayer Advocate wants IRS activities protected from future government shutdowns (February 2019)
