IRS Glitch Gives Americans Extra Tax Day

An overload at the IRS has given many Americans an extension on filing their taxes.

According to the IRS, so many people were trying to file online Monday their computers were overwhelmed and “melted down,” Those who tried to file over the phone were also met with delays due to the system shutdown. The agency did not say how many people were affected by the outage. But last year, about 5 million tax returns were filed on the final day of the traditional tax season.

Because of the delay, the official deadline to file your taxes is now midnight April 18.

Former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says smaller glitches have occurred before, citing budget cuts to the IRS as the lead cause.

“With continued underfunding it was not a question of whether the system was gonna fail, it was just a question of when,” Koskinen said.

The house will vote Wednesday on legislation that would require the I-R-S to modernize its systems.