Don't Hold Off

Without fail, every year we end up preaching about how procrastination will have no positive ramifications on the outcome of your tax return (or life in general). This is true for many good reasons and we continue to stand by them. This year is extra special, though, and has an extra reason for why you may want to be sure you get a jump on things as government employee cuts stand a chance to slow things down the road.

These cuts have already hit the IRS, which has laid off thousands of employees.  Granted, we aren’t looking at an amount that means returns and refunds are going to be held up in an indefinite status, but that is still enough employees that it’s bound to have some impact. And when it comes to simply looking at how quickly your return is processed or how quickly your refund gets to you, there is no way that it is going to make them happen quicker.

I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds here, but if you are interested in learning a little more, you can read this article about how former IRS chiefs see this as potentially leading to delays.

My personal take on this is that the biggest benefit to filing earlier now is that it could improve your situation down the line. Granted, most tax returns are filed, processed as they are, and nothing else is thought about it from there. Some do come with issues, though, which could need to be outside of the regular return season. And trust me, this is when you will feel the issues with the IRS’s customer service and understand the horror stories that emerge about it. So, if this is already something that can be difficult, how is it going to look if the agency has to face further cuts? And what if this were only to happen in a few weeks?

We start by talking about holding off procrastination as just a good idea for everyone and that is certainly still the case. The current situation just proves that point even more. If you don’t know exactly what’s coming and how it’s going to make things look for you – isn’t it best to take care of what you can while you can?

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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