IRS has requested that we suspend the usage of the modernized e-file (Mef) system for a few days, possibly up to a week.  We made this transition to legacy e-file today, Saturday, February 11th, at 12:00 noon EST.  We do not know when we will be able to transition back to Mef.

As many of you know, there have been – and continue to be – many federal refunds delayed this year.  IRS is currently processing quickly in the Mef system, but a downstream process has a backlog due to some internal issues they have had.  They are working on resolving those issues and hope to have them resolved in a matter of days.

What the transition to legacy means for preparers is that ACKs will NOT be back within minutes … it will take anywhere from 1 hour to 10 hours, depending on what time of day you transmit.  We are back to the legacy drain schedule of prior years.  Those drain times are 12:00 noon EST., 6:00 pm, and 2:00 am local service center time.

The good news is that the returns transmitted to legacy during this time should not experience refund delays.

To see a copy of the communications from IRS, click here.

http://blog.drakesoftware.com/2012/02/irs-efiling-needs-help.html