It’s Tax Day—and e-filing is unavailable!

4/18/18 Update:

The IRS’ computer systems went back on line a little before 5:00 p.m. yesterday.

In light of this huge computer glitch, the filing deadline has been automatically extended to midnight tonight.

Returns e-filed yesterday, which sat unprocessed due to the glitch, will still bear a “postmark” date of 4/17/18, so they’re timely filed.

You can advise employees that if they need additional time to file their returns, they can apply for an automatic six-month extension, by filing Form 4868. The six-month extension notwithstanding, if they owe taxes, they’ll still have to pay the taxes they estimate are due.

Maybe you’ve seen the panic in employees’ eyes. For true procrastinators, today is tax day. About the worst possible time for the IRS to be experiencing computer problems. But, apparently, its entire system is down.

This message came across my email at 8:48 this morning:

The MeF ATS and Production systems are unavailable. A QuickAlert will be issued when the systems are back online.

Thank you in advance for refraining from accessing the MeF Systems during this period.

MeF, short for Modernized e-File, is the IRS’ online filing platform.

Game day for the IRS

Cyber warfare by Russians? Maybe. Who knows? Yesterday, several newspapers reported that the Russians were up to no good, again, with computer systems located in the United Kingdom. Everyone knows today is tax day. And there’s probably no better way to disrupt Americans’ routine than to mess with the IRS on tax day. You have to wonder why no hacker has thought of this before.

Update: The problem, according to IRS Acting Commissioner David J. Kautter, seems to be that communication has broken down between the IRS and the tax prep software companies, and not hacking. Phew, that’s a relief!

Check, please

Those who owe taxes and chose to use its Direct Pay option are affected by this system failure. The IRS is in the process of rebooting its systems, Kautter said.

Kautter also noted that taxpayer can still use Direct Pay, it’s just clogged up. And, he said, that taxpayers won’t be penalized because of its computer glitch. Also comforting.