IRS Will Pay Tax Refunds During Shutdown, Easing Pressure for a Deal

[Wingnut]

The Internal Revenue Service will issue refunds to taxpayers even if the U.S. government shutdown extends into the filing season, a decision that may reduce political pressure on Congress and President Donald Trump to reach a deal to reopen the federal government.

“Tax refunds will go out,” the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, told reporters at a briefing on Monday.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-07/irs-will-pay-refunds-during-government-shutdown-official-says

[Frank Cannon]

There are very few people involved with any of this anymore. Everything is filed electronically and checks are spit out by a computer.

[Wingnut]

There are very few people involved with any of this anymore. Everything is filed electronically and checks are spit out by a computer.

So true. 

[libertybele]

There are very few people involved with any of this anymore. Everything is filed electronically and checks are spit out by a computer.

I'm trying to remember the last time we actually received a refund. 

[Frank Cannon]

I'm trying to remember the last time we actually received a refund. 

If you are not getting one you are not cheating enough.

[Fishrrman]

Ambassador Frank wrote:
"There are very few people involved with any of this anymore. Everything is filed electronically and checks are spit out by a computer."

Well, being the troglodyte that I am, I still fill out paper forms and mail them in.
I do my taxes myself, always have done 'em that way.

Has anyone looked at the "new Form 1040" yet?
The supposedly "easier" one?
They made it "shorter" so on the surface it "looks simpler".
But... it ain't.

There are now Schedules 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 that you might have to attach to it, as well (some of this stuff was previously right on the longer 1040).

Some of the "fewer" lines on the new 1040 required more complex calculations... read the fine print.

And -- after printing out a pdf copy -- some of the blank lines on the form where you're supposed to enter numbers are so small, that there's almost no room in which to enter them.

Bring back the old 1040.
It actually made more sense.