Ha! IRS Payment Website Breaks on Tax Day

Katie Pavlich | April 17, 2018 4:50 PM

Today is the final day the IRS will allow you to file your taxes without a penalty or an extension. But there's one major problem:

Last-minute filers got a rude surprise on tax day: The IRS website to make payments and access other key services is down. But the agency still expects Americans to pay their taxes on time.

The IRS did not give an immediate explanation for the failures but said in a statement that “certain IRS systems are experiencing technical difficulties.”

The agency also said that taxpayers “should continue filing their tax returns as they normally would.” The problem is, electronic filing is the most popular way to file. And the IRS offered no immediate solution.

Pages on the IRS website (www.irs.gov) used to view account information, make a direct payment or set up a payment plan were all not functioning most of the day Tuesday.

Too perfect. Want to pay on time? You'll have to come back later for that.

Want to Pay Your Taxes? Come Back Later, Says I.R.S. https://t.co/LDCND8BqAt
— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) April 17, 2018

Amazing how when government fails, the citizen is still expected to follow all of the rules.

By the end of the day it looks like the IRS may extend the deadline because of their error.

The IRS says that it will likely extend the tax filing deadline because of its broken website. #TaxDay
— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) April 17, 2018

Due to the overly complicated IRS system, according to the Tax Foundation it costs Americans billions of hours and hundreds of billions of dollars each year to file taxes properly.

-The growing complexity of the U.S. tax code has led to large compliance costs for households and businesses.
-Using data from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is possible to estimate the total cost of tax compliance on the U.S. economy.
-Americans will spend more than 8.9 billion hours complying with IRS tax filing requirements in 2016. -All in all, tax compliance will cost the U.S. economy $409 billion this year.