Drake Tax – Annual IRS Maintenance Shutdown Period for e-Filing Returns

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Article #: 10747

The IRS accepts e-file of individual and business returns for the current year tax return and the two prior years through the MeF system (Modernized e-File system). During the 2026 tax year, you can e-file a 2026, 2025, or 2024 return from the corresponding year of Drake Tax. All other prior years must be paper-filed. The IRS has an annual maintenance period (called a “blackout”) during which certain types of returns are not accepted electronically. This is also referred to as the e-filing shutdown or cutover schedule.

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 2025 begins on Saturday, December 26, 2026 at 11:59 am EST.

  • This shutdown prevents e-filing of individual returns for all years.
  • Ack retrieval must be completed by 11:59 pm EST on 12/26/26. If you do not retrieve your acks by that time, you will have to wait until MeF opens for production in January 2027.
  • The IRS has not announced the date that they will begin accepting individual returns in 2027.

Business Returns

The business shutdown for tax year 2025 begins on Saturday, December 26, 2026 at 11:59 am EST.

  • This shutdown prevents e-filing of business returns for all years.
  • Ack retrieval must be completed by 11:59 pm EST on 12/26/26. If you do not retrieve your acks by that time, you will have to wait until MeF opens for production in January 2027.
  • The IRS has not announced the date that they will begin accepting business returns in 2027.

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.