IRS pay systems back up after harrowing outage. Taxpayers have an extra day to file.
The IRS is giving all taxpayers an extra day to file after its website went down on deadline day.
The agency announced that individuals and businesses with a filing or payment that was due Tuesday now have until midnight Wednesday.
It said no additional paperwork is needed to get the extension.
The IRS' efile system returned to service Tuesday afternoon following a harrowing outage on the day Americans faced a midnight deadline to file returns and pay any owed taxes.
The agency’s website for making payments and gaining access to other key services crashed amid the filing flood.
H&R Block confirmed it received a notice from the IRS that efile had been restored. The notice was sent at 3:45 p.m. Central.
A second IRS system that allows taxpayers to make online payments directly to the Internal Revenue Service also was down Tuesday. The original notice of its outage was gone Tuesday afternoon, but an IRS spokesman could not confirm immediately that direct pay or efile were working.
The systems' failures had prevented taxpayers from electronically filing their returns or from making online payments directly to the agency as the midnight Tuesday filing deadline approached.
Julie Welch, a certified public accountant, said she received the afternoon notice that efile was again working, but she had not yet gotten confirmations that efiled returns had been accepted.
The IRS website was showing that efile was available Tuesday afternoon, and its direct pay webpage appeared normal. Throughout the disruptions in services, the IRS urged taxpayers to continue to efile their tax returns normally.
Tuesday's original outage notice about the efile problem said the agency was "working this as a priority." The notice for direct pay apologized "for any inconvenience" as did the restoration of service notice to H&R Block.
The IRS encourages taxpayers to use its electronic filing system, particularly as a way to speed refunds. Most late filers, however, typically owe the IRS and delay filing to delay payment, making the direct pay disruption all the more untimely.
H&R Block similarly urged taxpayers to press on with business as usual during the outage to efile.
"Despite the IRS outage, H&R Block is open and continuing to process tax returns for our clients," the Kansas City-based tax preparer said in email Tuesday. "While the IRS system is down, we are completing the returns, which will be sent as soon as the IRS system re-opens and will be considered filed on time. We are encouraging tax payers to continue to use our retail services or our do-it-yourself products as they normally would."
The system allows taxpayers and their preparers, including tax preparation software and online services, to submit a completed federal tax return digitally rather than mailing printed copies of the return.
Acting IRS Commissioner David J. Kautter acknowledged the efile outage during an oversight hearing in Washington on Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.
"On my way here this morning, I was told a number of systems are down at the moment," Kautter said at the session with lawmakers, according to the Post.
This story was originally published April 17, 2018 at 1:03 PM with the headline "IRS pay systems back up after harrowing outage. Taxpayers have an extra day to file.."