Some H&R Block customers who waited until the last day to file their taxes faced frustrating outages that began Sunday night, according to the company and Downdetector. Downdetector reported that the problems began around 9 pm ET on Sunday and at its peak, there were almost 1,700 outage reports. The outage was resolved by Monday afternoon, just in time for the tax deadline at 11:59 pm.
The outage came at a particularly inconvenient time for taxpayers, as the IRS had expected “tens of millions” more returns to be filed in the last few days leading up to the deadline. Many tax filers rely on online services such as H&R Block, so the outage affected a significant number of people. The bad gateway error prevented some desktop software users from filing their returns, but most self-filing customers who use the company’s website were not affected.
H&R Block advised affected customers to either file again or print, file, and mail the form to the IRS. However, some customers expressed frustration on social media as they rely on e-filing for the convenience it offers over mailing. Customers also reported issues with their cards being charged multiple times when attempting to file their taxes, but the company assured that these temporary authorization holds would usually expire in 3-5 business days and customers would not be charged.
If H&R Block customers encounter a tech glitch that prevents them from e-filing and they still owe the IRS money, they can avoid a penalty by printing out a 1040-V voucher and mailing it in with their payment by the midnight deadline. Taxpayers can also apply for an automatic six-month filing extension by filling out and sending in the necessary form. By around 4 pm ET on the day of the deadline, affected customers were able to e-file their returns without further issues.
Taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts have more time than other states to file their taxes. In those states, taxpayers have until April 17 to file and pay taxes due this year. This extension is due to the Patriots’ Day holiday observed in Maine and Massachusetts on April 15, and the Emancipation Day holiday in the District of Columbia on April 16. The IRS website provides information on state-specific tax deadlines.
H&R Block released a statement to CNN, indicating that they informed clients via in-product message and customer service that they could now e-file their returns after the outage was resolved. The company worked to address the issues quickly to ensure that affected customers could meet the tax deadline without any further delays. CNN contributor Jeanne Sahadi provided additional reporting on this situation.
