About 120 million returns had been processed as of Friday, out of about 150 million expected over the entire filing season. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images IRS gives Americans extra day to file taxes after outage Agency officials said the problem was on the IRS’ end, causing a disconnect that meant the IRS couldn’t take returns filed through tax preparation software companies.

The IRS is giving taxpayers an extra day to file their tax returns after a malfunction at the agency prevented it from accepting electronically filed returns and payments for much of Tuesday, which had been the official deadline for filing.

The extraordinary move means all individuals and businesses now have until midnight Wednesday, and they don’t need to do anything to secure the extra filing day.


“This is the busiest tax day of the year, and the IRS apologizes for the inconvenience this system issue caused for taxpayers,” acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter said in a statement announcing the extra filing day after the systems were restored.

“The IRS appreciates everyone’s patience during this period. The extra time will help taxpayers affected by this situation,” Kautter said.

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No final explanation was offered for the crash, though Kautter said after a Hill hearing where he revealed the problem that it was probably an internal software or hardware problem and not due to an outside breach like a cyberattack. The IRS is still assessing, but all indications point to it being hardware-related and the agency is aware of no other external issues, the agency said in a statement late Tuesday.

The IRS processing systems came back online late Tuesday afternoon, after which the agency could again accept e-filed tax returns and payments, including through its Direct Pay system. It wasn’t able to do so after the outage began after 1 a.m. on what had been the final day for taxpayers to file their 2017 returns unless they requested an extension.

It wasn't immediately clear how many taxpayers were affected by the glitch. Last year, the IRS received about 5 million returns on the final day of tax filing season, officials said, though some of them were filed by mail and not electronically.

Earlier Tuesday, Kautter said about 120 million returns had been processed as of Friday, out of about 150 million expected over the entire filing season.

IRS officials said the problem was on the IRS’ end, causing a disconnect that meant the IRS couldn't take returns filed through tax preparation software companies, since the agency's Direct Pay system was part of the outage, Kautter said.

"The challenge is the transmission," he said.

Kautter told lawmakers of the snafu during a House Oversight Committee hearing.

Some Republicans jumped on the glitch as an example of incompetence at the agency.

“It’s game day for the IRS,” said Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.), “and it seems the IRS can’t get out of the locker room.”

But it also shined a light on the agency’s struggles after years of budget cuts by Congress. Former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen warned before he stepped down last year that the agency's computer systems were vulnerable to crashing because, he said, Congress hasn't provided enough funding to the agency to upgrade all of its systems.

The IRS wasn’t prepared for such a failure, the agency's watchdog warned last year. It lacked plans to deal with a system crash because it was out of date with protocols to restore operations in the event of an emergency, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in an audit.

“By not maintaining a current enterprise-wide business impact analysis, the IRS does not have reliable information to guide its disaster recovery restoration priorities,” TIGTA said.

The office studied IRS preparedness capabilities for systems housed in two locations, including facilities in Martinsburg, W.Va., where Tuesday's outage occurred.

The House is set to vote this week on a package of IRS reforms that would lay the groundwork for upgrading the computer system.

Kautter said he learned of the problem before beginning his testimony at the House committee.

“On my way over here this morning, I was told a number of systems are down at the moment,” he said. “We are working to resolve the issue, and taxpayers should continue to file as they normally would.”

He had this reassurance for those affected by the glitch: “Taxpayers would not be penalized because of a technical problem that the IRS is having."