Mark Matthews Comments on Impact of Government Shutdown on U.S. Taxpayers

The partial government shutdown is forcing multinational corporations, domestic taxpayers and practitioners into a tricky guessing game as deadlines approach and automated collection notices are still released, without anyone at the Internal Revenue Service to discuss or negotiate with.

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“Although not the fault of the IRS or its employees, the IRS computers still send notices with required response dates, such as about liens or levies, that are alarming to our clients," said Mark Matthews, a member of Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, D.C., and a former IRS deputy commissioner. "Because we can’t reach IRS employees, there is nothing we can do really, other than assure the clients that no such actions are likely until the shutdown is over.”

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Matthews said the shutdown, in some respects, feels like a continuation of problems that have plagued the IRS over years of budget cuts and staff reductions.

"It's just an exacerbation of the problem of insufficient resources in tax enforcement," he said. "It was sort of already bad enough, and this just makes it worse."

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Excerpt taken from the article “Shutdown Cranking Up Anxiety, Uncertainty for Taxpayers” by Alex M. Parker for Law360.