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Financial Planning > Tax Planning

H&R Block Users Say They Can’t File Their Taxes as Deadline Looms

By Katie Rass

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UPDATE: ”We are happy to report the issue that was affecting a small number of our downloadable desktop software users has been resolved,” H&R Block posted at 3:47 p.m.

An H&R Block outage that started Sunday night has left some users of its desktop software unable to file their tax returns as the 2024 filing deadline — 11:59 p.m. Monday in most states — rapidly approached.

“I have been trying since yesterday to send my taxes,” a user posted on the outage monitoring site Downdetector. “Still down. I want a refund for the software I purchased since it is not operating when I need it. I am now going to have to redo the taxes on an online software service. All that work up in smoke.”

Several X users posted images of an error message they received, warning of “trouble making a connection between your software and our server.”

The tax-prep software company acknowledged the problem in a post on X late Monday morning. 

Online clients and those working with its tax professionals, in person or virtually, were not affected, the company said in the post. 

“We are working to resolve the issue quickly and ask clients to please try again later today or print and mail their return if that is more convenient,” the company’s customer support account, @HRBlockAnswers, posted.

The company provided the same statement when asked for comment by ThinkAdvisor.

At 4 p.m., a company spokeswoman said in an email that “the issue affecting a small number of our downloadable desktop software users has been resolved. We have notified our clients via an in-product message and as they reach out to customer service that they can now efile their return.”

She noted that the vast majority of customers use H&R Block’s DIY online edition, which was not affected.

The problem started around 9 p.m. Sunday, according to Downdetector. Problem reports rose to more than 1,200 around 11 p.m., declining overnight, and rising again starting Monday morning. There were about 1,400 problem reports around 3 p.m. Monday.

An X user complained that her debit card had been charged even though her return had not been submitted — a concern voiced by other commenters. An H&R Block support rep replied that any “temporary authorization holds” for the amount of the fee would be canceled by the user’s bank in three to five days.

IRS Updates

Also on Monday, the Internal Revenue Service said the pilot program for its new online filing tool, Direct File, handled over 60,000 tax returns from taxpayers in 12 states since mid-March.

The IRS and its Free File partners, which offer free private-sector software via the IRS.gov website, filed more than 2 million tax returns so far in 2024. That is up 11% over the same period of 2023 and represents roughly 200,000 more returns.

The IRS says it has delivered roughly $200 billion in refunds through early April, with the average refund being $3,011.

In addition, the agency offered taxpayers a callback options on 97% of its phone lines this filing season — which included 4 million callbacks, more than double the 1.8 million calls it returned in 2023.

Overall, taxpayers filed about 450,000 more returns for free at volunteer sites, via Direct File and though Free File during this year’s tax season than they did last year.

Credit: Bloomberg

Katie Rass

@think_katierass

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