After performance issues to its electronic filing system caused delays in processing tax returns during the 2012 filing season, the Internal Revenue Service has made several enhancements to the system over the past year that are expected to improve the tax-filing process, according to a report released May 30, 2013 by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

The electronic filing system, called Modernized e-File (MeF), enables real-time processing of tax returns while improving error detection, standardizing business rules, and expediting acknowledgments to taxpayers. However, during the 2012 filing season, the IRS had to suspend MeF system processing on at least two occasions to correct system performance issues.

“IRS management noted that the performance issues first experienced on January 17, 2012, might have been caused by the large volume of tax returns received by the MeF system during the first day of processing. According to the IRS, the volume of returns received by the MeF system on January 17, 2012, was one of the largest the IRS had ever received to date,” the TIGTA report states.

“The second incidence of MeF system performance issues started in late January 2012. These issues primarily included delays sending files to downstream systems and delivering of acknowledgments, which resulted in delays in processing individual tax returns.” Read More