Meanwhile, as Stephen Colbert would say ...

Some H&R Block customers dealt with hours of outages ahead of the tax day deadline on Monday night, the tax filing service confirmed on social media.

In a post on the social platform X around 11:15 a.m. EDT Monday, H&R Block said an issue prevented some desktop software users from e-filing their returns. “Online clients” and those working with a professional virtually or in person were not impacted, the company said. Shortly after 3:45 p.m. EDT, H&R Block said the issue was resolved.

“We are happy to report the issue that was affecting a small number of our downloadable desktop software users has been resolved,” the company wrote on X.

Data from Downdetector, which uses self-reports of service disruptions, shows the apparent outages began around 9 p.m. EDT on Sunday and rose throughout the night, before falling Monday morning. Starting around 6 a.m., the outages began to climb back up. At its peak around noon EDT, nearly 1,700 outages were reported before the number began to drop around 3:20 p.m., Downdetector reported.

https://thehill.com/business/4596132-hr-block-customers-faced-outages-ahead-of-tax-day-deadline/