Thursday, May 23, 2019

Annual e-file shutdown

The Internal Revenue Service has announced its annual modernized e-file (MeF) systems shutdown for Memorial Day weekend. The shutdown starts Saturday, May 25, 2019 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, and ends on Tuesday, May 28, 2019, at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time.

That means the IRS will not be accepting electronically filed federal tax returns during that period. It also means that the Rhode Island Division of Taxation will not be accepting e-filed Rhode Island returns during that period because the federal/state e-file program will be unavailable. 

The joint fed-state e-file program is a cooperative tax-filing effort between the IRS and most states, including Rhode Island. In general, it allows for federal and state returns to be e-filed simultaneously to the IRS. Once the returns are filed, the IRS keeps the federal portion; the state portion is passed along electronically to the applicable state.