U.S. tax deadline postponed until April 18

[Doctor Q]

News: IRS to delay tax deadline by one day after agency’s Tax Day technology collapse

The agency was struggling to accept returns from the widely used tax software program TurboTax and the massive tax preparation company H&R Block.​

The "direct pay" feature, which lets you pay your taxes owed from a savings or checking account, also failed today. Some taxpayers were greeted with an IRS message saying the system would next be available on December 31, 9999!

87% of returns are filed electronically and there are lots of procrastinators among us. The IRS expected approximately 5 million people to file their tax returns today. (That's the number from last year.) About 15 million people file for extensions, but they still have to file and pay any amount owed on time.

The outage was referred to as a "high-volume technical issue" but also as a "hardware issue."

According to Bloomberg, the IRS is running code written nearly 60 years ago, most of it in assembly language, on the oldest computing systems used by the federal government. I've read that they still run a lot of COBOL programs too.

This shouldn't be a surprise, given the shrinking IRS budget and the increasing workload, but I doubt that many Americans are celebrating the extra day that they have before taxes are due.

I know it'll cost a fortune to upgrade the hardware and software they use, but I'm curious how much interest the government will lose by receiving so many tax payments a day later.

 

[Dingster101]

One day extension granted. I figured this was going to happen. I’m a procrastinator too but got mine done Sunday

 

[Doctor Q]

Here's cheerful news. Cybercriminals may be less interested in hacking your computer to file a false tax return, because there's an even juicer target: tax professionals.

Cybercriminals now targeting tax pros to cash in on fraudulent returns

The I.R.S. can recognize if a computer of an individual is filing too many tax returns, and will stop them for likely being fraudulent. But the agency expects tax professionals to file dozens, if not hundreds of tax returns on behalf of their clients.

If cybercriminals can compromise a tax professional, they get access to two key things. One is the private information of that tax professional's clients that can be used to file tax returns on their behalf. And in addition to that, they can use the IP address and the computer of the tax professional to actually do the filing with the I.R.S.​

 

[Mousse]

Procrastinator? Hah! More like people wanting to keep their money as long as possible. Only those who know they'll get a fat refund would file early.

 

[bradl]

There's just one small problem with this, unless you happen to live in Nevada, Washington, or possibly Delaware...

While the FEDERAL income tax deadline has been extended a day, that doesn't say anything about STATE income taxes being extended. Here in California state income taxes still had to be turned in on 4/17/18. And since most people file state and federal income taxes at the same time, they may miss the state deadline due to waiting for the federal deadline. So some may cop a penalty for filing late without an extension, even if that extension is for one day..

Nevada, Washington and (possibly) Delaware don't have that issue because they don't have state income tax.

BL.

 

[Doctor Q]

While the FEDERAL income tax deadline has been extended a day, that doesn't say anything about STATE income taxes being extended. Here in California state income taxes still had to be turned in on 4/17/18. And since most people file state and federal income taxes at the same time, they may miss the state deadline due to waiting for the federal deadline. So some may cop a penalty for filing late without an extension, even if that extension is for one day..

That's correct, and there's also this California requirement:

If you are filing Form 540 you must attach a copy of your federal return to your California return if you filed any schedules other than schedule A, schedule B, schedule L or schedule M with your federal return.​

As a result, many taxpayers needed to finish their federal return by the state deadline anyway.

 

[ftaok]

Nevada, Washington and (possibly) Delaware don't have that issue because they don't have state income tax.

BL.

Not sure about Nevada or Washington, but Delaware absolutely has state income taxes. You're probably confusing it with Delaware's lack of a state sales tax.

Delaware's income tax is actually pretty high, compared to neighboring states PA and NJ.

 

[bradl]

Not sure about Nevada or Washington, but Delaware absolutely has state income taxes. You're probably confusing it with Delaware's lack of a state sales tax.

Delaware's income tax is actually pretty high, compared to neighboring states PA and NJ.

That's probably what it was.

Nevada and Washington residents don't file state income tax returns, because they don't have them. Nevada's rationale for it is since they bring in a considerable amount of money from gambling, that makes up the need for raising revenue from income tax. I am not sure about what Washington's reasoning is, but as my wife lived there, and her brother and sister live there she has firsthand knowledge of what they have for income tax.

So in Delaware's case, they are more like Oregon, which also doesn't have state sales tax. That's good to know.

BL.

 

[alphaod]

I filed mine a month ago.

 

[Doctor Q]

In the U.S., employers have to give you your tax form (the W-2) by the end of January, but investment companies have until mid-February to prepare them, and partnerships have until mid-March, making it hard for some people to file early.

Personally, I file as soon as I get the tax forms from the dozens of Swiss banks where I keep my hordes of cash, which I get from the tips I receive while signing autographs.