Don't Mess With Taxes

How many of you are still working this afternoon, the day before the July 4th holiday? And how many of you will be back in the office on Friday, July 5?

All of the Internal Revenue Service's employees will be taking Friday off, but not because they want to.

Friday, July 5, is the tax agency's third furlough day of the year, meaning IRS personnel won't be paid for the sequester-forced time off.

As was the case on May 24 and June 14, the first two furlough days, all IRS operations again will be closed.

What is and isn't available: Yes, that means all IRS offices nationwide, including the nearly 400 Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs), will lock their doors.

In addition, toll-free hotlines and the Taxpayer Advocate Service will be unstaffed.

So if you have a question about something that's due Friday or early next week, you need to get on the phone or to an IRS office this afternoon.

If, however, you had been notified that July 5 was the last day to respond to an IRS request, you now have until the next business day, Monday, July 8, to touch base with the agency.

As for online services, the agency's Online Payment Agreement, Where's My Refund? tracking tool and online preparer tax identification number (PTIN) system for tax professionals also will be inaccessible.

The IRS' online look-up tool for those needing to repay the first-time homebuyer credit, which was available during the two earlier furlough days, also will be offline this time. That, however, is not because of the furlough, but because of a planned outage during the Independence Day holiday period.

But note that the IRS won't be able to accept or acknowledge receipt of electronically-filed returns on July 5 or any future furlough days.

Some online services remain operational: Business filers and others who use Treasury's Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), however, are not affected. EFTPs will operate as usual.

And on July 5, taxpayers still will be able to use the following IRS online services: Withholding Calculator, Order A Transcript, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Assistant, Interactive Tax Assistant and Tele-Tax.

More furloughs ahead: You also should mark July 22 and Aug. 30 on your tax calendars.

Those are the remaining scheduled IRS furlough days for this year.

But depending on how budget talks go on Capitol Hill, the agency says it may announce one or two additional unpaid leave days.

• IRS plans furloughs to deal with sequester's cuts
• How would your state fare under sequestration?
• Tax returns filed, refunds issued running behind last year's numbers