Trump Shutdown Undermines GOP’s Own Tax Law
One thing we’re guessing Republicans didn’t think through before they shut down the government: the IRS won’t be able to implement the tax law that they wasted so much time on instead of funding the government.
The incompetence is stunning. From the Washington Post:
The incompetence is stunning. From the Washington Post:
“In 2017, Republicans handed the Internal Revenue Service a huge task. In 2018, Congress is about to send home much of the agency's workforce.”
“The architects of the recently passed Republican tax law are relying on the tens of thousands of IRS employees to turn their new vision for the tax code into reality.”
“But now the IRS, like the rest of Washington, faces the threat of a government shutdown — one that would deprive the federal agency about 56 percent of its workforce, according to the U.S. Treasury, just as that workforce is needed for one of its biggest jobs in decades. Tax experts and former IRS officials are warning that a prolonged shutdown could exacerbate the challenge the already-strained agency faces in implementing the complicated new GOP tax law.”
“But companies and taxpayers will be impatient for clarifications from the federal government about a range of questions, and any lengthy delay could prolong the existing confusion about the new law's provisions.”
“‘This is going to be terrible — there are so many questions, and I don't think the IRS will have all the answers,’ said Marvin Friedlander, who spent 40 years at the IRS before retiring in 2010. ‘And the people who need to develop guidance will instead be at home.’”
“The architects of the recently passed Republican tax law are relying on the tens of thousands of IRS employees to turn their new vision for the tax code into reality.”
“But now the IRS, like the rest of Washington, faces the threat of a government shutdown — one that would deprive the federal agency about 56 percent of its workforce, according to the U.S. Treasury, just as that workforce is needed for one of its biggest jobs in decades. Tax experts and former IRS officials are warning that a prolonged shutdown could exacerbate the challenge the already-strained agency faces in implementing the complicated new GOP tax law.”
“But companies and taxpayers will be impatient for clarifications from the federal government about a range of questions, and any lengthy delay could prolong the existing confusion about the new law's provisions.”
“‘This is going to be terrible — there are so many questions, and I don't think the IRS will have all the answers,’ said Marvin Friedlander, who spent 40 years at the IRS before retiring in 2010. ‘And the people who need to develop guidance will instead be at home.’”