Some of the IRS' computers went down this week, preventing the agency from accepting tax returns submitted via its e-filing system, a disruption that could possibly affect refunds.
"The IRS is still assessing the scope of the outage," the agency said,
according to USA Today. "At this time, the IRS does not anticipate major refund disruptions; we continue to expect that nine out of 10 taxpayers will receive their refunds within 21 days."
The federal agency specifically stated that a "hardware failure" forced the shutdown on Wednesday,
CBS News reported, and the problem persisted on Thursday.
"The IRS is currently in the process of making repairs and working to restore normal operations as soon as possible," it said.
In the meantime, taxpayers who are ready to file electronically can still submit their return to a third-party processor, such as TurboTax or another retail tax outlet, but those companies will have to wait until the IRS systems come back online to file.
For those who have already filed, no action need be taken, said the IRS.
In May of last year, the IRS also experienced computer-related troubles when it announced it was hacked by cybercrooks who gained access to information about roughly 104,000 taxpayers.
"We’re confident that these are not amateurs but organized crime syndicates that not only we, but others in the financial industry are dealing with," Commissioner John Koskinen said at the time.