IRS and Tax Filing Issues

Don't sweat it—there's always a little downtime around New Year's every year, so it'll be back up before you know it...

It really isn't working...
I don't recall things being this early last year—wasn't it usually later? Typically, the system goes offline after New Year's due to the annual balance reconciliations.

I just opened it up normally. Maybe it finally decided to work... hadn't really tried yet.

Hey everyone, I’m running into a major headache with my QuickBooks. For some reason, I can't get any digital signatures to work. I updated my security certificates yesterday, and now suddenly everything is blocked.
Does anyone have any ideas or a quick fix for this?
I've already tried troubleshooting on both my home laptop and my office desktop. I've restarted everything multiple times, too. Honestly, I'm in a huge rush to get this finished.

crimsonstag76 said:Hey everyone, I’m running into a major headache with my QuickBooks. For some reason, I can't get any digital signatures to work. I updated my security certificates yesterday, and now suddenly everything is blocked.
Does anyone have any ideas or a quick fix for this?
I've already tried troubleshooting on both my home laptop and my office desktop. I've restarted everything multiple times, too. Honestly, I'm in a huge rush to get this finished.

https://irs-gov-portal-help.usa.gov/signing-documents
Take a look at this link—honestly, there's a good chance that recent Java update is what's messing with your settings...

Just wanted to give you guys an update... after a massive headache switching back and forth between the local tax office and the IRS. I finally went down to the IRS to have them test my certificates—the ones they were so incredibly adamant were perfectly fine—only to find out the signing certificate was actually broken. They managed to get everything sorted by 1:00 PM on December 31st, 2015, so I just barely dodged a total disaster.

I’ve got about a million digital certificates floating around somewhere (don't even ask 😁). And lately, this weird thing keeps happening—twice now—where I get zero warning that they’re about to expire.
First it was the IRS, and now some big commercial bank.
How is that even possible?
Even those apps and programs—what do you call them, Gemalto or whatever—didn't say a single word. (Tech experts, please don't laugh at me, I'm doing my best to explain this 🙈 )
With the Federal Reserve, for example, as soon as I plug my card into the reader, a pop-up hits me telling me exactly how many days I have left before the certificate expires. But with the IRS and this other bank? Absolute silence. 🤔

Is it just me? Like, did I mess up some setting or something?

JPMorgan Chase always gives you a heads-up, but FINRA? Never. As for anyone else, who knows.

amberbadger17 said:JPMorgan Chase always gives you a heads-up, but FINRA? Never. As for anyone else, who knows.

I wouldn't go along with that. Back on December 17, 2015, I got an email from FINRA that looked just like this:

"Dear Customer,
based on our records, your certificates are set to expire shortly.

Please review the attached documents containing the pre-expiration certificate details,
and confirm receipt of this message by visiting this link: "

I actually just got an email from FINRA today about my certificate expiring. Mine runs out on February 19th.
As far as I know, those notifications go to whatever email address is linked to your card. You might be using an old one, which would explain why you haven't seen anything yet.

I used to get an email every single time, but then this last one just never showed up.
The only way I can make sense of it is if the damn thing got lost in the shuffle while we were messing around with our Windows updates and switching over to a new Outlook setup—that whole process dragged on for a few days and was a total headache.
I mean, who knows if that’s even a real thing. 🤔
Let's just hope it doesn't happen again.

I ended up getting two different emails from FINRA about fifteen days apart.

crimsonstag76 said:I ended up getting two different emails from FINRA about fifteen days apart.

Well, I actually got two emails from FINRA and two from Chase
The messages included all the instructions and direct links so you can just go ahead and renew the certificate yourself.
After I reported the error with the FINRA server, I tested out the certificate within my Chase online banking, and everything seems to be working perfectly fine now, though I did still reach out to FINRA to have them double-check everything, and they confirmed that everything is totally good on their end.

So, is it actually possible that I just have some weird setting messed up and that's why I'm getting absolutely nothing?
I haven't received a single email—even though they definitely have my address—and I didn't even get that little pop-up notification when I plug my card into the reader or stick my USB into the computer. Zilch. Nothing at all.

Is there a chance our IT guy missed a step when he was nuking Windows XP to install Windows 7 and setting everything else up?
I honestly don't get it. How is it that you guys are all getting emails from FINRA, but I'm sitting here in total silence? 🤔

When I dig into the browser settings to check the certificates, I see them all listed there, but I have zero clue which one belongs to which bank or which one is from FINRA. It’s just a mess of abbreviations and random numbers... I can't remember them off the top of my head, but there aren't any actual names to tell me who is who.
I've got a bunch of certificates sitting there, but I have no way of knowing which one is, say, from FINRA, JPMorgan Chase, or the Federal Reserve.
It's driving me insane. 🙂

Where is that quiet IT crush of mine who usually pops up on this subforum once in a while to explain this stuff to me? 🙂

Here’s how I check it. I have a card from FINRA and I use IE

In IE, navigate to Tools internet options Content Certificates
You'll see a list of certificates there. Select one and click View, then hit Details
That shows you the issuer and the expiration date, among other things.

Alternatively:
Launch ActivClient
Select View my certificates
Right-click the certificate and choose View this certificate
And there you go—you can see the issuer and the validity period right there.

Man, seriously 🙏
Thanks a ton.
I’m gonna go through everything and jot it all down so I don't get blindsided again. Apparently, for some reason, my messages just aren't coming through.

The IRS website is down again 🙂

I filed my Intrastat paperwork yesterday and honestly thought I’d managed to break the system, but turns out they're just having some technical issues 👏

Now I'm left wondering how this affects payroll and those Joplin filings. 🎉

Hey there...

Quick question for the group: does anyone know if it's possible to submit corrected tax forms and financial statements from last year alongside this year's filing before the deadline hits? I ran into some errors, so basically, everything needs to be redone from scratch. How do the IRS and major banks usually handle this? Are they going to lose their minds or what??

Taylor Swift 🙂

Henry Edwards33 said:The IRS website is down again 🙂

I filed my Intrastat paperwork yesterday and honestly thought I’d managed to break the system, but turns out they're just having some technical issues 👏

Now I'm left wondering how this affects payroll and those Joplin filings. 🎉

Help,

I attempted to log into the Tax return portal today; I renewed my certificate and selected the updated version on the application, but the system refused to process it. I continued attempting to use the renewed certificate, verifying everything carefully, until out of sheer desperation, I clicked install. Eventually, I managed to access the Tax return site, but instead of appearing as the business entity, the interface identifies me as an individual authorized representative. I found this quite startling and am uncertain if I have fundamentally compromised the account settings or something similar.
I contacted the IRS, and a representative informed me that they are performing maintenance on the tax systems and that things are currently disorganized; specifically, the system is struggling to accept newly renewed certificates due to data mismatches, though they expect functionality to be restored by tomorrow. Over the phone, she guided me through verifying the certificates within the Microsoft client, which appeared to be correct.
I have been attempting to access the Tax return portal again this evening, yet the issue persists; the dashboard continues to display the profile of the individual representative rather than the corporation. In the upper right corner, it shows the user name of the individual along with their Social Security number, but nothing regarding the actual business entity for which the certificate was issued. It is entirely unclear how this error occurred. This is a significant concern, as I am obligated to finalize payroll and various other disbursements by the 15th.
Is anyone else encountering these specific issues??? Help. My apologies for the disorganized nature of this post.

I just got off the phone with the IRS headquarters regarding my access to the online tax portal. Apparently, there’s a massive glitch involving digital certificates that were renewed after December 7, 2015.
They honestly have no clue how or when they'll actually get this sorted out.

At this point, I’m completely lost on what I’m supposed to do about all these mandatory filings. 🤷