The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has had to give US taxpayers an extra day to file their taxes after its payment site crashed on the 17 April deadline day
Taxpayers now have until midnight on 18 April to file their returns or pay any overdue tax.
The IRS encountered system issues Tuesday morning. Throughout the system outage, taxpayers were still able to file their tax returns electronically through their software providers and taxpayers using paper to file and pay their taxes at the deadline were not affected by the system issue.
Acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter said: ‘The IRS apologises for the inconvenience this system issue caused for taxpayers and appreciates everyone’s patience during this period. The extra time will help taxpayers affected by this situation.’
The outage affected the Direct Pay link, a free service for paying taxes via bank accounts, and the Payment Plan page, where filers can pay their tax bill in instalments. Both pages are back online.
Taxpayers that are unable to meet the 18 April deadline will face a penalty of 0.5% of the balance due for every month their taxes are unpaid, up to a maximum of 25%.
Taxpayers who require an extension can pay the IRS estimated taxes on the phone or online and obtain an automatic extension of 15 October 2018 to file their return.
Report by Amy Austin
