For those not following the news, earlier this month parts of our government shut down. Included in that was most of the IRS. (All kinds of political comments and jokes would fit well here, but that is not the purpose of this blog.)
Last week government employees returned to their jobs and began to assess the status of projects, schedules,etc. The IRS determined that they will not be prepared to accept 2013 tax returns by the planned date. So the filing season will be delayed - just like it was last year.
The IRS indicated that a final begin date will be announced in December, but that it will not be before January 28 and is expected to be no later than February 4.
However, the current continuing resolution that Congress used to reopen the government only allows spending to continue until January 15. Many in Congress have indicated that the shutdown was not a positive thing and certainly issues will be resolved to avoid another shut-down in January. However, the ideological groups are far from each other on how to move forward. Possibly as important as the current spending is our national debt, which is now over $17 trillion! (That is almost $54,000 per person. If we each just wrote a check....) We must address this, and there are no popular answers. Any bona fide approach is sure to jeopardize the re-election of whoever suggested or supported it.
Personally, I'm not banking on us avoiding another shut-down this January. Maybe we will, but those odds are not very favorable. That means the February 4 date could be in jeopardy....
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