IRS Filing Website Experiences ‘Technical Problem’ Creating Delays on Tax Day

Portions of the IRS online tax return system have gone down, creating delays before the Tuesday filing deadline.

“On my way over here this morning, I was told a number of systems are unavailable at the moment,” declared acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter. “We are working to resolve the issue, and taxpayers should continue to file as they normally would.”

Kautter also reassured taxpayers that they “would not be penalized because of a technical problem the IRS is having.”

According to Business Insider, “The IRS’ website for the Direct Pay option, which allows filers to pay taxes directly from a checking account to the agency, says that the option is ‘currently unavailable.’ Tuesday is the deadline for filers to make payments to the IRS for their 2017 federal taxes and the deadline for businesses and self-employed persons to file their taxes for the first quarter of 2018.”

Conservatives on Twitter used the news to mock the incompetence of the government.

Government, in a nutshell: IRS payment site fails on tax day https://t.co/89IAYHed2E

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) April 17, 2018

There's no greater example of government incompetence than the IRS e-file system and direct pay service being down on #TaxDay. pic.twitter.com/mWjypxnzPz

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) April 17, 2018

The IRS is so incompetent they can't even keep their website up on tax day.

— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) April 17, 2018

However, Democrat Scott Dworkin attempted to spread a conspiracy theory that “the Russians” were actually behind the downed system.

I wonder if the IRS website being shut down has anything to do with the Russians. I’m not joking. Or Twitter shutting down earlier today mostly in the NE US, the UK and Japan-who Trump is meeting with today. If it is the Russians, just know, Trump will respond by doing nothing.

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 17, 2018