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White House says IRS will pay tax refunds despite government shutdown

Posted at 4:53 PM, Jan 07, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-07 16:53:50-05

WASHINGTON – Americans can still expect to get their tax refunds even though the Internal Revenue Service has been swept up in the federal government shutdown.

The acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, told reporters on Monday that the Trump administration is working to make the “shutdown as painless as possible,” adding that tax “refunds will go out.”

The administration is seeking to avoid a delay in payouts of tax refunds to millions of Americans who are owed money.

During a shutdown, the IRS typically doesn’t perform audits, pay refunds or offer assistance to taxpayers if they have questions, especially outside of the filing seasons.

The country’s tax collector is among the federal agencies affected by the partial government shutdown, which is now in its third week.