Some IRS April 15 Debits Did Not Occur

For some taxpayers who had debits scheduled for April 15, 2021 for federal income tax balances due for the 2020 tax year, the debit did not occur on April 15.  The IRS has indicated that this was caused by an issue with their software and that these debits are expected to occur within the next week, without further action required by practitioners or clients.  (Nevertheless, clients should monitor their accounts to make sure that such debits occur.)

Separately, for returns prepared and e-filed on or after March 25, 2021 by ProSeries tax software, a glitch affected debits scheduled for April 15, 2021 for the payment of first quarter estimated taxes for the 2021 tax year.  The April 15 debit erroneously did not occur, and the amount that was scheduled for April 15 was erroneously combined with the amount for the second quarter debit scheduled to occur on June 15, 2021.  Since this error will cause the first quarter estimated tax payment to be late and will cause clients to be subject to a penalty for underpayment of estimated taxes, practitioners should consider taking the following action to correct this issue.

First, taxpayers or the practitioners authorized to represent them should immediately schedule a debit to occur for the first quarter estimated tax.  Such debits can be scheduled using the IRS direct pay utility at  irs.gov/payments/direct-pay.  While payments made after April 15 will be late, if they are made within a few days of the due date, the penalties should be relatively small.  Intuit, the maker of ProSeries, has indicated that they have spoken to the IRS about this issue and will inform the IRS about taxpayers affected by this glitch.

Second, taxpayers or practitioners must contact the IRS to cancel the estimated tax debit that was scheduled for June 15, 2021 as part of the electronic filing of the taxpayer’s return.  Since this scheduled debit will erroneously combine the amount for both the first and the second quarter estimated tax payments, it should be cancelled.  Practitioners can contact the IRS to cancel the debit scheduled for June 15, 2021 by calling e-file payment services (888-353-4537), the practitioner hotline (866-860-4259) or the e-file helpdesk (866-255-0654).  Note: In recent days, the e-file help desk has often been indicating that it would not accept additional calls due to high call volume.

Third, taxpayers or practitioners should use the IRS direct pay utility to set up a debit to occur on June 15, 2021 for the correct amount that is due for the second quarter estimated taxes for 2021.