H&R Block Users Say They Can't File Their Taxes as Deadline Looms

An H&R Block outage that started Sunday night has left some users of its desktop software unable to file their tax returns as the 2024 filing deadline — 11:59 p.m. Monday in most states — rapidly approached.

“I have been trying since yesterday to send my taxes,” a user posted on the outage monitoring site Downdetector. “Still down. I want a refund for the software I purchased since it is not operating when I need it. I am now going to have to redo the taxes on an online software service. All that work up in smoke.”

Several X users posted images of an error message they received, warning of “trouble making a connection between your software and our server.”

The tax-prep software company acknowledged the problem in a post on X late Monday morning. 

Online clients and those working with its tax professionals, in person or virtually, were not affected, the company said in the post. 

“We are working to resolve the issue quickly and ask clients to please try again later today or print and mail their return if that is more convenient,” the company’s customer support account, @HRBlockAnswers, posted.

The company provided the same statement when asked for comment by ThinkAdvisor.

The problem started around 9 p.m. Sunday, according to Downdetector. Problem reports rose to more than 1,200 around 11 p.m., declining overnight, and rising again starting Monday morning. There were about 1,400 problem reports around 3 p.m. Monday.