IRS systems experiencing ‘technical difficulties’ on tax-filing day

The IRS on Tuesday said some of its systems were experiencing “technical difficulties” as many Americans were racing to meet the April 17 deadline for most individuals to file their 2017 tax returns.

“On my way over here this morning, I was told that a number of IRS systems are unavailable at the moment,” Acting Commissioner David Kautter said at a House oversight hearing.

“We are working to resolve this issue, and taxpayers should continue to file their returns as they normally would,” he said.

Mr. Kautter said the agency is bringing backup systems online.

“Hopefully, we’ll have that issue resolved quickly,” he said.

Mr. Kautter said taxpayers can continue to prepare their returns and submit them to private tax-filing services like TurboTax.

“The challenge we’ve got is between transmission from the software providers — H&R Block, Intuit — to the IRS systems,” he said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the agency’s website had an alert notice in the section for people trying to pay the money owed on their return from a bank account: “This service is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Congressional Republicans are trying to use Tuesday as an opportunity to highlight the benefits people are getting from the new $1.5 trillion tax-cut law, and Rep. Greg Gianforte expressed frustration at the technical issues.

“This is game day for the IRS, and it seems the IRS can’t get out of the locker room,” said Mr. Gianforte, Montana Republican.

Rep. Richard Neal, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said tax-filing day is stressful enough already without such additional concerns.

“Given this news, I hope that the IRS will make accommodations so that every taxpayer attempting to file today has a fair shot to do so without penalty,” Mr. Neal said.

Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the agency didn’t know what caused the problems, as of the last update he received.

He also tied the issue to long-term funding cuts the IRS has seen over the last eight years or so.

“We don’t want taxpayers … penalized because they didn’t do anything wrong, and we know for certain the IRS’s lack of funding is compounding these kinds of problems,” Mr. Wyden said.