Where does the tax money go during a shutdown??

It goes to the same treasury accounts it always does. Just because they aren’t actively paying doesn’t mean they won’t resume when the shutdown ends. Employees who are working through the shutdown will get back pay. Employees who are ineligible for back pay and on furlough won’t. But federal taxation is not zero sum for the budget. If we usually operated on a balanced budget then this would result in a surplus. But we all know there isn’t a surplus or balance in the federal budget. So this simply eases the deficit by a minuscule margin.

It still gets collected. Some money still get’s spent on entitlements like Social Security and VA Disability. These things aren’t touched. The Federal Budget determines how the discretionary part of federal funds is spent (what’s left after mandatory spending and entitlements). The budget isn’t based on income, in fact there’s many times when the government spends more than it takes in taxes and bonds, this is called the budget “deficit”. There is still a tax scheme in place, so you will still pay taxes based on the tax scheme in place.

Collecting funds is a critical function. The accountants may not get paid, but they collect it anyway.

The projected revenues for the year only pay for about 3/4 of what is actually budgeted, so just from that standpoint, the government would have to be closed about 3 months of a fiscal year until we started getting a surplus.

I haven’t heard anything about social security checks not going out, so when you start looking at those programs it gets a bit more complicated. “Mandatory” spending and national debt interest are pretty close to the revenue, so there really might never come a time when there was any surplus.

Which tax money are we you talking about?

More gold spray paint and Home Depot wall decor for the White House fifth toilet from the ballroom

Same place it always goes. The shutdown merely means the government lacks authority for most fiscal expenditures. It doesn’t necessarily stop the functions of government, just the government’s ability to pay for most things (which, yes, does stop certain things).