IRS Statements and Announcements

January 29, 2019 - The IRS has reopened following the end of the government shutdown, and IRS employees are working hard to resume normal operations and help taxpayers as much as possible.

January 25, 2019 — The United States Tax Court’s website announced that the Tax Court shut down operations on Friday, December 28, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. and will remain closed until further notice. The IRS reminds taxpayers and tax professionals the Tax Court website is the best place to get information about a pending case.

January 15, 2019 — Due to the lapse in appropriations, most IRS operations are closed during the shutdown. An IRS-wide furlough began on December 22, 2018, that affects many operations.

January 9, 2019 — Following an extensive review, the IRS began processing requests on Jan. 7 for transcript information made through the Income Verification Express Service (IVES) program. IVES

Sept. 20, 2018 — Following feedback from the payroll and tax communities, the Treasury Department and the IRS will incorporate important changes into a new version of the Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, for 2020.

Feb. 9, 2018 — The IRS is reviewing the legislation signed Feb. 9 that retroactively extended and modified numerous tax provisions covering 2017

Find IRS statements on 2018 tax withholding tables.

Dec. 8, 2017 — IRS announced that taxpayers may resume creating new accounts protected by Secure Access authentication.

Nov. 3, 2017 — IRS reminds taxpayers that no start date has been set for the 2018 tax season. Speculation about January start dates is premature.

March 30, 2017 — The IRS Data Retrieval Tool on fafsa.gov and StudentLoans.gov remains unavailable.

March 9, 2017 — The IRS Data Retrieval Tool is currently unavailable. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

IRS Statements Regarding Sequestration

Office of Chief Counsel Statements

July 19, 2016 — The IRS today announced that the “Get an IP PIN” tool has returned to IRS.gov with a stronger authentication process to help protect taxpayers.

June 23, 2016 — As a precautionary step to protect taxpayers, the IRS today announced that the electronic filing PIN tool  is no longer available on IRS.gov or by toll-free phone following additional questionable activity.

May 4, 2016 — Federal law and policy requires agencies, including the IRS, to charge a user fee to recover the cost of providing certain services to the public that confer a special benefit to the recipient.

March 7, 2016 — As part of its ongoing security review, the Internal Revenue Service temporarily suspended the Identity Protection PIN tool on IRS.gov and is conducting a further review of the application.

Feb. 26, 2016 — Following an incident involving the IRS’s “Get Transcript” application discovered last May, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration conducted a nine-month long investigation looking back to the launch of the application in January 2014 for additional suspicious activity.

Feb. 9, 2016 — The IRS recently identified and halted an automated attack upon its Electronic Filing PIN application on IRS.gov.

Feb. 4, 2016 — The IRS announced it resumed processing individual and business tax returns at approximately 5 p.m. Thursday following resolution of its system outage.

Jan. 19, 2016 — The IRS successfully opened its systems today in a smooth opening of the 2016 tax filing season. Through mid-day, the IRS had received several hundred thousand tax returns.

Aug. 17, 2015 — The IRS has issued an additional statement on the Get Transcript incident, discussing its extensive review covering the 2015 filing season.

Aug. 5, 2015 — The IRS has issued a statement on the Senate Finance Committee report.

May 26, 2015 — The IRS announced that criminals used data acquired from non-IRS sources to gain unauthorized access to information on approximately 100,000 tax accounts through IRS’ “Get Transcript” application.

Feb. 2, 2015 — Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen commented on the proposed budget for the IRS for FY 2016.

July 24, 2014 — The IRS has issued a statement on draft forms that will be used by employers to report employee health coverage.

June 14, 2014 — IRS issues a statement on a June 13, 2014, IRS letter to the Senate Finance Committee.

April 9, 2014 — The IRS has issued a statement on the "Heartbleed" security flaw. Our systems continue operating and are not affected by this bug.

March 18, 2014 — The IRS today issued a statement on a data security employee issue.

October 18, 2013 — The IRS started reopening operations on Oct. 17. Our employees are reporting back to work, and we are assessing the impact of the 16-day shutdown on our national operations.

April 18, 2013 — The IRS administers the nation's tax laws in a way that follows the law and treats taxpayers with respect.

Jan. 22, 2013 — The IRS has issued a statement on a court ruling related to enforcement of regulatory requirements for registered tax return preparers.

May 18, 2010 - Forthcoming guidance will help small organizations that haven't filed keep their tax-exempt status.

Nov. 20, 2006 — Statement of IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson.