The Internal Revenue Service has told lawmakers it would return from the government shutdown buried in millions of unanswered taxpayer letters, weeks behind schedule on training for workers and needing to hire thousands of new employees for this tax filing season, according to two House aides.

The National Taxpayer Advocate, a government watchdog group that oversees the collection agency, has also told House staffers it is likely to take at least a year for the IRS to return to normal operations, according to the two House aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the numbers. The watchdog group told House staffers that the recovery would take 12 to 18 months, one House aide said. These numbers assume the government does not shut down again in three weeks.

(Source: WaPo)