IRS Direct Pay is Working Again

Currently, certain IRS systems are experiencing technical difficulties. The IRS is looking into the issue and will provide updates as soon as possible. Taxpayers should continue filing their tax returns as they normally would.

The IRS has also confirmed that the Where’s My Refund is operational, but Direct Pay is not. Users are also having trouble using the “View Your Account” function.

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The IRS Direct Pay system is not functioning on this last day of timely tax filing. And it appears that the efiling system is also at least partially down.

Today is the deadline for most Americans to report their income taxes for the last calendar year and, if taxes are owed, to pay that debt. It is unclear at this time whether the IRS internet outage is the result of a high volume of legitimate users, or is due to a coordinated external attack. The Washington Post is reporting that the IRS is planning to attempt a “hard reboot” of its system, hoping to get it up and running again.

Gail Perry, a CPA and editor-in-chief of this website, received the following message when attempting to make a payment for a tax client:

This service is temporarily unavailable. We are working to resolve the issue. Please come back later and try again, or you can visit the Make a Payment page for alternative payment methods. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The error message also occurs when trying to use the “Look Up Payment” function.

Many professionals and individuals rely on the IRS’ web-based Direct Pay to make those payments or estimated tax payments directly from their checking or savings accounts. The credit card payment systems available through the IRS website appear to be functioning, however there is a fee associated with making those payments.

If the website stays down, taxpayers are still responsible for making payment by midnight tonight. An obvious alternative is to head to the Post Office.

The IRS has asked that efilers continue to proceed with their efiling, even if returns aren’t being accepted in short order. According to the Washington Post report, IRS Acting Commissioner David J. Kautter has stated, “If we can’t solve it today we’ll figure out a solution. Taxpayers would not be penalized because of a technical problem the IRS is having.”

We will update this story as more information becomes available.