How a Government Shutdown Affects Your Tax Refund

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that there will likely be a government shutdown effective Friday at midnight. In response to the deadline, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has posted information on its website indicating that federal employees whose salaries are funded through annual appropriations won't be able to work and will be furloughed, unless their duties qualify under the law as "excepted" to continue to work during periods of lapsed appropriations. That means approximately 800,000 government workers will be asked to stay home until the budget crisis is resolved. And yes, that includes those government workers at the Internal Revenue Service.

Don't get too excited, though. The IRS Commissioner, Doug Schulman, has announced that a government shutdown will not affect the due date for federal income tax returns. Tax Day is still April 18, 2011.