Will partial government shutdown affect tax refunds? What to know

Tax filing season is underway, but there are concerns that those awaiting tax refunds could face delays due to the partial government shutdown.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said on Monday that it would continue operations “as normal” during the shutdown.

The agency recently warned taxpayers to brace for delays as the IRS recovers from staff losses and the record-long government shutdown last fall.

Newsweek has contacted the IRS for further comment via an email sent outside regular business hours.

Why It Matters

Advocates have already warned that the 2026 tax filing season is likely to present challenges for taxpayers given the exodus of IRS workers since President Donald Trump returned to office last year. The partial government shutdown began on January 31 after funding lapsed for several agencies, including the IRS, which could also makes things more difficult.

If you paid more through the year than you owe in tax, you should get a refund. Even if you didn’t pay excess tax, you may still get a refund if you qualify for a refundable credit, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit. But you must file a return to get your refund, and you have three years to claim a tax refund. 

About 104 million taxpayers received refunds last year, and the average refund was $3,167, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate’s latest report to Congress.

What To Know 

According to the IRS, if you file your return electronically, it should take 21 days or less to receive your refund and even less if you have chosen to receive the refund via direct deposit. 

If you file a paper return, the refund could take four weeks or more. But for returns that require corrections or additional review, it could take longer to receive a refund.

Typically during a shutdown, federal employees who perform essential duties work without pay while those working in nonessential roles are furloughed. Fewer employees could mean slower processing times for tax returns and delays in tax refunds.

However, the IRS said on Monday that the agency would continue operations during the shutdown using funding from 2022 legislation. It said offices would maintain regular hours, while online self-service help tools and other services would be “continuing as usual.”

On January 26, Diana M. Tengesdal, the deputy inspector general for audit at the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, wrote in a letter to IRS leadership that recent workforce cuts had returned IRS staffing to October 2021 levels, and that the backlog for processing tax returns was 129 percent higher than inventories before the pandemic.

This “may affect the IRS’s ability to timely process tax returns during the filing season, especially with reduced staff,” Tengesdal wrote. “This could result in delays in taxpayers receiving refunds and could result in the IRS paying interest.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he was confident the House would approve a federal funding package to end the partial shutdown by Tuesday.

The Senate passed the five-bill package on Friday, but it must pass the House again before it can be signed into law. 

What People Are Saying 

The Internal Revenue Service said in a statement on Monday: “The Internal Revenue Service will continue operations under the current lapse in appropriations until further notice, using funding from 2022 legislation. Expect IRS operations to continue as normal with IRS offices maintaining regular hours, on-line self-service help tools available and other services continuing as usual. Taxpayers also should continue to meet any federal tax filing or payment obligations as normal.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CBS News last week, when asked whether a shutdown would affect tax refunds: “I can tell you, we’re ready. We have continuance plans in place. It will not affect tax season at all.”

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins wrote in the latest annual report to Congress: “Among the reasons the 2025 filing season went well was that the IRS had its largest workforce in many years and faced no major tax law changes that required implementation during the filing season. Entering 2026, the landscape is markedly different. The IRS is simultaneously confronting a reduction of 27 percent of its workforce, leadership turnover, and the implementation of extensive and complex tax law changes mandated by the [One Big Beautiful Bill] Act, many of which apply retroactively and require significant IRS programming, guidance, changes to tax forms and instructions, and taxpayer education.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: “Our intention is by Tuesday to fund all agencies of the federal government except for [the Department of Homeland Security]. And then we’ll have two weeks of good-faith negotiations to figure it out.”

What Happens Next

Voting on the funding package is expected to begin as soon as Tuesday, which would be day four of the partial government shutdown.

Meanwhile, taxpayers can use the Where’s My Refund? tool on the IRS website to check the status of their refund 24 hours after electronically filing a return and four weeks after filing a paper return. 

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