Drake Tax – Annual IRS Maintenance Shutdown Period for e-Filing Returns
Article #: 10747
Last Updated: December 05, 2024
Note See IRS - MeF Production Maintenance Shutdown Times for scheduled outages in addition to the annual maintenance period.
Individual Returns
The individual shutdown for tax year 2023 began on Saturday, November 30, 2024 at 11:59 pm EST.
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In preparation for the 11:59 pm IRS deadline, any returns transmitted after 11:45 pm EST will receive a B ack. If you need to file after this time, you will need to either paper-file the return, or wait for the MeF system to resume operations.
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This shutdown prevents e-filing of individual returns for all years.
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Ack retrieval is not affected.
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The MeF production open date for tax year 2024 has not yet been announced.
Business Returns
The business shutdown for tax year 2023 begins on Thursday, December 26, 2024 at 11:59 am EST.
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In preparation for the 11:59 am IRS deadline, any returns transmitted after 11:45 am EST will receive a B ack. If you need to file after this time, you will need to either paper-file the return, or wait for the MeF system to resume operations.
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This shutdown prevents e-filing of business returns for all years.
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Ack retrieval is only available until Thursday, December 26, 2024 at 11:59 pm EST. If you do not retrieve your acks by that time, you will have to wait for the MeF system to resume operations in January.
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The MeF production open date for tax year 2024 has not yet been announced.
States
States can continue to use all the service requests necessary to retrieve and process state submissions except during the shutdown activities shown above. MeF recommends that states adjust their processing schedule in order to retrieve submissions in time to validate returns and submit acknowledgments.
Some states, such as California, still allow for e-filing of state-only (direct) individual returns even when the IRS is shutdown.
More MeF service information may be available at the IRS MeF Status Page.