As of today, the partial U.S. Government shutdown is at 18 days and counting, and shows no signs of letting up. In fact, the debacle is on track for breaking the “shutdown record’ set back in 1995-96 when a political standoff between the Clinton administration and a Republican House led by Newt Gingrich lasted for 21 days.

So why exactly should you care?

Several federal agencies help to support businesses just like yours, and we are starting to see the consequences from a failure to compromise what happens in the business world when congress is unable to fund the government. Here are two examples of what some business owners are facing right now:

Limited services from the IRS

The partial U.S. Government Shutdown may impact your business because the IRS, which is part of the Treasury Department, has categorized many of their functions as “a non-essential activity”, which means workers are furloughed. This fact could result in delays in getting tax returns processed, among other things. Do you need to have questions answered by the IRS? Taxpayer services are also listed as non-essential, which explains why we have been unable to get anyone to answer the phone to give us a status update pending EIN applications that were not able to be submitted online through their EIN assistant service.
No Small Business Administration Lending
If you were planning on an SBA loan for your business, you may need to seek an alternative option. The Small Business Administration has suspended its backing of loans for business owners, a program that helps those who may not qualify for traditional loans get the capital to start a business.

Here’s the bottom line

If you are one of the many out there that rely on services provided by the federal government to help start or manage your business, you may be out of luck. At least until those elected to higher office do their sworn duties, fund the government and get back to work.

You can keep tabs on the situation in real-time here:Live 2019 U.S. Government Shutdown Updates from CNN.