Podcast: The Shutdown May Be Over, But its Ripple Effects on Lending and Tax Compliance are Just Beginning Published December 5, 2025

Host: Terry Gerton
Guest: Dave Bohrman

On The Federal News Network’s The Federal Drive, our own Dave Bohrman sat down with Terry Gerton to discuss what the shutdown meant at both the IRS and SBA, why IRS data is critical for the lending process, and what lies ahead for small businesses and lenders in the shutdown’s wake.

More than a month of frozen federal functions stalled Small Business Administration loan approvals and cut off the IRS data lenders depend on. Those disruptions rippled through housing markets and raised deeper questions about systemic vulnerabilities — particularly around how prepared the lending ecosystem is for data disruptions of this scale.

As the shutdown collided with an already uncertain credit landscape, Dave explains: “On the supply side, lenders are getting a little bit more frugal with who they give money to. And on the demand side, small businesses are looking for credit less, which is impacting the overall economy.”

Interview Transcript:

Terry Gerton As we look back, the shutdown’s over now, but it lasted over a month and it really froze critical functions across every federal agency. From your vantage point, what were the most immediate and severe impacts on lenders and small businesses?

Dave Bohrman Well, Terry, I think that’s obviously a big question because there’s some latency in what those impacts will be. So some of that will come out in the days and weeks and months ahead. But looking at it very specifically, you also have to kind of consider what was the situation going into the government shutdown, and that kind of governs what actually those impacts will were or are going to be. So you have a highly volatile economy from a lot of uncertainty, whether that be from the tariffs or whether that be from tax policy, or whether that be from any of the agencies’ policies internally with respect to workforce. All of that kind of created a perfect storm with the political situation of the landscape in Washington; really made a real recipe for the government shutdown to happen. My question always was, once a government shutdown happens, how do we get out of it?…

Source: The shutdown may be over, but its ripple effects on lending and tax compliance are just beginning

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Posted By: David Bohrman

As the VP of Marketing, David is responsible for driving overall marketing strategy for Tax Guard including brand positioning, go-to-market execution, and lead generation programs. For the past 15 years, David has held senior positions in early growth and mature companies, leading marketing, operations, and business development teams. Prior to Tax Guard, David was the Director of Marketing of one of the largest tax consulting firms in the country. He holds a B.A. in English and Philosophy from the University of Vermont.