—UPDATE: As of 5pm EST 2/4/2016 the IRS began processing tax returns following its system outage.
The IRS released a statement on the evening of Feb. 3rd that their tax-processing systems have suffered a hardware failure that could potentially affect thousands of taxpayers who have already filed their return all the way into Thursday, if it hasn’t already. The following statement was released by the IRS on Wednesday 2/3/2016:
The IRS experienced a hardware failure this afternoon affecting a number of tax processing systems, which are currently unavailable. Several of our systems are not currently operating, including our modernized e-file system and a number of other related systems,” said the IRS. The IRS is currently in the process of making repairs and working to restore normal operations as soon as possible.
irs.gov still remains available to the public, although a number of the services on their site are not operating. These services include the Where’s My Refund tool, preventing the ability to check on the status of one’s refund.
Taxpayers can continue to file their tax returns with their preparer, however companies will hold the tax returns until the IRS begins to accept electronic tax returns. The IRS stated:
Taxpayers who have already filed their tax returns do not need to take any additional action. The IRS is still assessing the scope of the outage. At this time, the IRS does not anticipate major refund disruptions; we continue to expect that 9 out of 10 taxpayers will receive their refunds within 21 days.
