IRS and Tax Filing Issues

Kimberly Harris6 said:The IRS website is being a total nightmare right now. I can't submit forms, and I can't even pull up tax transcripts for some of my clients. I actually spoke with a lady at the local field office yesterday, and she admitted that a ton of people have been filing complaints because the system is such a mess. She basically said they’re still trying to iron out the kinks and told me we just need to hang in there through the week—she’s personally hoping everything stabilizes by next Monday. To top it all off, getting a hold of technical support is impossible; they aren't responding to any of my emails at all.

Kimberly Harris6, you are absolutely right—the whole thing is a mess. It’s incredibly inconsistent. One day I can download tax transcripts without an issue, and the next, it’s completely blocked. Sometimes it works for half my client list, then fails for everyone else the following morning. I tried submitting a VAT return today, but it just bounced back with a generic error message during the transmission process. When I finally got a response to one of my email threads, they claimed the system was simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data entry and asked for our patience. It sounds like the official line you were given at the IRS office. At this point, all we can do is exercise our usual patience, though I have to say, the quality of this rollout is frankly subpar.

Kimberly Harris6 said:The IRS website is being a total nightmare right now. I can't submit forms, and I can't even pull up tax transcripts for some of my clients. I actually spoke with a lady at the local field office yesterday, and she admitted that a ton of people have been filing complaints because the system is such a mess. She basically said they’re still trying to iron out the kinks and told me we just need to hang in there through the week—she’s personally hoping everything stabilizes by next Monday. To top it all off, getting a hold of technical support is impossible; they aren't responding to any of my emails at all.

I'm in the exact same boat. Customer service won't pick up the phone, period. A colleague over at the tax office told me they were even told during a training seminar that they wouldn't be taking calls and would only handle things via email. When they do reply to my emails, it takes about twelve hours or so. When I sent them a note saying I was getting an error that the form receipt couldn't be saved to the database, they spent two whole days trying to convince me it was my fault—claiming I'd copied something wrong or that I needed to convert the data to ASCII... So, I finally shot them a message explaining that some clients go through fine while others don't, and now I'm curious to see what kind of excuse they come up with. Honestly, I was starting to think I was losing my mind...

I couldn't get my ID verification to go through last night, even though I had zero issues accessing the Black Panther Party site... honestly, I feel so much better now knowing I'm not the only one struggling with the IRS website 🙄

That old app you installed on your computer? It's officially obsolete.
You gotta log in through the website now:
https://www.irs.gov/

If the login says you don't have authorization, just try registering.
Still getting an error saying your certificate isn't valid? You'll need to call customer service. They didn't even start working until 1 PM today. 🙄

Since I ran into that issue myself, here’s what you need to do:
Email their support team at support@irs.gov
with these details:
- Your certificate name, like John Doe xxxxx.x.x. (that ID number)
- The business name
- The EIN
- Your contact number
- A note saying you're requesting authorization

Basically, I just sent over all my important info from the previous app.
Certificate name: John Doe xxxxx.x.x
Business name:
App user:
Business EIN:
Address:
Email:
Local office:
Phone number

Just waiting for them to call me back and confirm everything went through.

I’m completely stuck on this "certificate not selected" error—it’s all I get. I don't have any extra software installed, and honestly, I’m not even sure if I actually need it. I’ve been banging my head against the wall for hours now, which is especially frustrating since I’m basically doing this pro bono for someone else.

All I’m trying to do is file some sales tax paperwork through the IRS portal. Does anyone have any advice??

(For what it's worth, I know my way around a computer. I’ve tried every supported browser, installed the root certificate, my Windows 7 OS smartcard reader is set up perfectly, I'm running the latest Java version, and so on and so forth)
I can't find any decent instructions online either (I've memorized the entire IRS FAQ site at this point), but I keep reading here that you don't even need special apps. I never received a disk or a thumb drive with software, and I don't see a download link anywhere)

And here’s the real mystery: once before, when I was on the IRS website, it gave me two options: 1) launch the application or 2) install the application.

After waiting forever, I have no idea what actually happened—nothing showed up in my program list.

HELP PLEASE

Make sure this isn't anything too obvious.
Did you adjust that stylized toggle in the top right corner? The one displaying user info (authorized certificate) and the taxpayer's SSN? I missed it at first because of my screen width.
I tried sending the ID, and he said everything looked fine, but then he froze up during the digital signature step—his screen just went blank and those three little boxes popped up.
It was only then that I noticed the taxpayer's SSN in the upper right doesn't match the one I'm actually trying to send (since I hold multiple powers of attorney).

I’m not quite sure where you ended up—or maybe I just missed your point here.

But whenever I hit "login" or try to register, I keep getting this error saying "certificate not selected."

The thing is, my personal certificates aren't installed, though I honestly have no idea why that is...

I do have the RDC root certificate installed, though.

(And I don't have any software support—middleware—set up for the smartcard reader.)

So, if I'm reading this correctly (and IF my interpretation of this forum is actually right), it looks like that web app just went live—which most people probably aren't even using yet—meaning we don't have to bother installing that Goldman Sachs software anymore, right?

I don't actually have any user certificates—the ones listed under "personal"—installed on my computer. I was looking at how they're supposed to be set up according to the IRS website instructions:

"Installing user certificates on your computer
Follow the procedure described for the software component you use for your smart card reader, YubiKey, or similar device. The following
instructions apply to Gold Card, Active Client, SafeNet Authentication Client, or eToken PKI Client: "

The thing is, I skipped that whole section of the manual because I don't have any of those specific applications installed...

Also, just in case it matters—when I plug in the USB stick I was issued, it glows green for about ten seconds before switching to red. I'm not entirely sure if that's normal behavior.

The application went live on March 4th, 2013. It moved to a new URL—which was posted on the Police Department's site—and I don't think we had to do anything special with the old one, if my memory serves me right.
I just clicked the login button and used my IRS ID card certificate to pull up all the Social Security numbers for the people I have power of attorney for.
The only thing that tripped me up was what I mentioned in my previous post.

Jack Young, are you using the e-filing system? Got those security certificates installed yet?

I don't bother with the online tax filing system.

Following the IRS instructions, I just downloaded that official root certificate.

Brenda Chase3 said:Kimberly Harris6, you are absolutely right—the whole thing is a mess. It’s incredibly inconsistent. One day I can download tax transcripts without an issue, and the next, it’s completely blocked. Sometimes it works for half my client list, then fails for everyone else the following morning. I tried submitting a VAT return today, but it just bounced back with a generic error message during the transmission process. When I finally got a response to one of my email threads, they claimed the system was simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data entry and asked for our patience. It sounds like the official line you were given at the IRS office. At this point, all we can do is exercise our usual patience, though I have to say, the quality of this rollout is frankly subpar.

I'm not entirely certain if this was an isolated issue on my end, but perhaps it might help someone else: the payment card interface tends to trigger a pop-up window. If you happen to have those blocked in your browser settings, you won't be able to view the card at all. Once you give the site permission to open them, everything seems to work fine—at least, that was my experience.

Just sent off my ID form successfully!
FARC is still showing up just like before

Taylor Campbell4 said:I don't bother with the online tax filing system.

Following the IRS instructions, I just downloaded that official root certificate.

Did you get that file from the IRS labeled "new cd"? (At least that's what I saw)
If you did, just run it all the way through. Once it finishes, it should tell you to restart your PC.

You’ll need to install the driver for that gray USB drive.
The old disc didn't include it, but this new one does.

Make sure you install all three certificates into one folder:
Trusted Root Certification Authorities
Once that's done, try heading over to the IRS website to log in.
If it doesn't work, check my last post where I talked about requesting those tax credits via email.

Dennis Sanchez84 said:That old app you installed on your computer? It's officially obsolete.
You gotta log in through the website now:
https://www.irs.gov/

If the login says you don't have authorization, just try registering.
Still getting an error saying your certificate isn't valid? You'll need to call customer service. They didn't even start working until 1 PM today. 🙄

Since I ran into that issue myself, here’s what you need to do:
Email their support team at support@irs.gov
with these details:
- Your certificate name, like John Doe xxxxx.x.x. (that ID number)
- The business name
- The EIN
- Your contact number
- A note saying you're requesting authorization

Basically, I just sent over all my important info from the previous app.
Certificate name: John Doe xxxxx.x.x
Business name:
App user:
Business EIN:
Address:
Email:
Local office:
Phone number

Just waiting for them to call me back and confirm everything went through.

I know the drill, I've already done all that and I haven't heard anything back yet... I'm going to try submitting the forms later today and see what happens. I realize we can't use the old software anymore and have to use that link instead. Hopefully, everything gets sorted out before the deadline.

Hey there. Is anyone else here running into a bit of a snag with this new online portal? I’m trying to get my digital signature on the ID form, but the system keeps throwing an error saying it's "unsigned." It’s like a stubborn mule refusing to budge. Does anyone know what the catch is? I'd really rather not spend my afternoon scrolling through endless PDF manuals or playing phone tag with the IRS. Thanks in advance!

Hannah Harris6 said:Hey there. Is anyone else here running into a bit of a snag with this new online portal? I’m trying to get my digital signature on the ID form, but the system keeps throwing an error saying it's "unsigned." It’s like a stubborn mule refusing to budge. Does anyone know what the catch is? I'd really rather not spend my afternoon scrolling through endless PDF manuals or playing phone tag with the IRS. Thanks in advance!

I wish I could tell you why it's acting up... honestly, I just finished submitting an ID for a different company using a totally different digital certificate, and everything went through perfectly fine.

Think about whether you picked the right certificate at the very start. If you have a bunch of them saved on your computer, things can get messy. It might be a good idea to unplug any other security keys or smart cards so only the correct one is active.

Also, when you're filling out the section for "LOCAL TAX AND MUNICIPAL DATA," make sure you don't miss that little green checkmark. That's usually where people trip up.

Thanks for the tip... yeah... and that bit about the green checkmark is actually super helpful. I didn't quite catch that you had to click it at first glance

Hannah Harris6 said:Hey there. Is anyone else here running into a bit of a snag with this new online portal? I’m trying to get my digital signature on the ID form, but the system keeps throwing an error saying it's "unsigned." It’s like a stubborn mule refusing to budge. Does anyone know what the catch is? I'd really rather not spend my afternoon scrolling through endless PDF manuals or playing phone tag with the IRS. Thanks in advance!

I'm having the exact same issue!!!
The FBI form won't go through (keeps saying unsigned), and the ISIS paperwork is just as broken. The only thing that actually works is viewing sent forms. Total nonsense. 🤷