The IRS started reopening operations on Oct. 17. Employees are reporting back to work, and the IRS IS assessing the impact of the 16-day shutdown on their national operations.

At this point, the IRS has received a large amount of correspondence during the closure. They know there will be a substantial increase in demand for their IRS phone services and many other operations.

On Oct. 17, the IRS started reopening their phoneIRS Building in Washington lines and there Taxpayer Assistance Centers, both of which will take time to ramp up to normal operating status.

In addition, other business operations have started resuming, including the processing of billions of dollars of refunds for individuals and businesses and honoring transcript and authorization requests from third parties.

Given the high demand for services, the IRS encourages taxpayers to wait to call or visit if their issue is not urgent, and to continue to use automated applications on the IRS website, www.IRS.gov, whenever possible.

Taxpayers who need immediate assistance are encouraged to visit Taxpayer Assistance Centers in their area or try call centers but should be aware there will be delays.

In the days ahead, the IRS will continue assessing the effect of this unprecedented situation on its operations, and they will do everything they can to resume their normal operations as quickly as possible so that we can best serve the needs of the American taxpayer.