IRS outages on Tax Day spark more humor than anger
April 18, 2018 7:37 PM
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While no one was happy about the technical glitches that left critical tax filing systems unavailable for a large part of April 17, the public response leaned more to wry humor than serious outrage.
Some were happy for the extra day to file, others saw an excuse to drag out their favorite "Office Space" memes (watch Slide 2), and still others photocopied their butts to fax to the IRS. Many tax pros noted that they already had plans for April 18 (like screening "Black Panther," or sleeping) and that nothing would drag them back into the office.
But it wasn't all good-natured resignation: Many saw it as yet another reason to hate their political enemies, whether on the left or the right, and even more believed it was a clear demonstration of government incompetence.
With all that in mind, here's a selection of representative responses from across the Internet, including some of our editors' favorites.
Some were happy for the extra day to file, others saw an excuse to drag out their favorite "Office Space" memes (watch Slide 2), and still others photocopied their butts to fax to the IRS. Many tax pros noted that they already had plans for April 18 (like screening "Black Panther," or sleeping) and that nothing would drag them back into the office.
But it wasn't all good-natured resignation: Many saw it as yet another reason to hate their political enemies, whether on the left or the right, and even more believed it was a clear demonstration of government incompetence.
With all that in mind, here's a selection of representative responses from across the Internet, including some of our editors' favorites.
Percussive maintenance
Live look in at the
— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow)#IRS pic.twitter.com/b6gZNWxQbj April 18, 2018
Mark your calendar
I love the IRS message so much I put it on my website
— Sam Bowne (@sambowne)https://t.co/JFxlRrGsmi https://t.co/2gNFUcfhy6 pic.twitter.com/iHoAvVKiKh April 18, 2018
Finding workarounds
Dear IRS, please see attached payment for tax year 2017.
— Al P. Sharpton PAC (@RealAlSharpton1)pic.twitter.com/JvpQtC52Wq April 18, 2018
Still, some were angry ...
The IRS website crashed on Tax Day. Could there be a better example of government's incompetence?
— Ken Webster Jr (@ProducerKen)pic.twitter.com/2B58vWpKd4 April 17, 2018
... and drew their own lessons from the outages
Consider this:
— Paleo Libertarian (@bolderthanu)
The IRS has extended the deadline to file your taxes until midnight today due to technical problems.
If the government isn't even competent in taking our money why would anyone think they would be competent in spending it?#TaxDay April 18, 2018
Let the conspiracy theories begin!
IRS ONLINE FILING SYSTEM EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL ISSUES: WAPO
— zerohedge (@zerohedge)pic.twitter.com/e5MZXfO62P April 17, 2018
The real winners
Congrats procrastinators, you have an extra day to file your taxes this year thanks to a well-timed crash on the IRS’s “Direct Pay” page
— Lifehacker (@lifehacker)https://t.co/wnZrqQKYBf pic.twitter.com/tFYU9H5WSt April 18, 2018
The preparers' perspective on Tuesday
The best use of the extra day
If the IRS gives everyone 1 extra day to file their taxes because of their huge glitch yesterday, but no CPAs are working today, then does it really make any difference? (he tweets from the couch after sleeping in and planning to attend a noon movie showing of Black Panther)
— Chris Wittich (@RavenousTiger)April 18, 2018
A blockchain fan's response
Wow, that's funny. The government healthcare site crashed on launch, now the IRS site crashes on
— Matthew Holey (@matthewholey)#TaxDay , but you know what's been running for the entirety of its existence of over 9 years without any downtime?#Bitcoin April 18, 2018
And the Star Trek fan's response
“What do you mean I didn’t file my taxes? I did, Odo. It’s not MY fault that the IRS site went down just as I filed.”
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb)pic.twitter.com/bkz5YAsn9X April 17, 2018
At least the pizza was extended, too
Since the IRS is extending tax filing time...we are adding one more day of price reductions to help alleviate a little stress! Two great tax deals to choose from!
— Minsky's Pizza (@MinskysPizza)
The $20.17:
Large Gourmet Pizza & Cheese Breadsticks
code: TX2017
The $10.40:
Small Gourmet Pizza
code: TX1040pic.twitter.com/XiG2cKGgyT April 18, 2018
