If you wanted to walk into the IRS office in Medford right now, you couldn’t because of the government shutdown, leaving many confused about how to file their taxes this year.
MEDFORD, Ore. -- If you wanted to walk into the IRS office in Medford, you couldn’t because of the government shutdown, leaving many confused about how to file their taxes this year. Because of this and the new tax laws, agent Patrick Hurley of Hurley’s Tax Services said he's already added about 20 new clients to his list.
"You cannot even make a phone call or send a contact for any information so you're almost forced to deal with the tax professional," Hurley added.
Since the IRS is closed, Hurley can't even give them a call or send certain documents over for clients. By the end of this tax season Hurley expects to see about 150 extra clients, all full of questions about how to file their taxes this year. Despite the shutdown, the IRS will be processing returns. The partial government shutdown isn't the only thing causing some confusing this tax season, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act President Trump signed at the end of 2017 is also adding some confusion.
"People are going to be shocked seeing the new different things and when they try to do that themselves who are they going to talk to? You're not going to be able to make a phone call to the IRS."
The new law eliminates all personal exemptions, most itemized deductions and doubles the standard deduction. So Hurley recommends hiring an agent to help file this year.
"Because of the new complex laws, nobody really knows what to expect yet…It's going to make it difficult there are no promises up there. Easy returns will get through quickly. The more complex returns will take more time."
You can find important deadlines here.