Four hundred-and-seventy-three taxpayers who were amongst the thousands of taxpayers who requested Telefile extensions to file their income tax returns and who also set up an accompanying electronic payment had their accounts debited twice. The error occurred in one file that appeared not to have been properly processed through the banking system's Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) but that, in reality, had been processed correctly. The DOR error amounted to $8.2 million coming from 473 taxpayers' accounts.
While this is a fairly small number of the 110,000 extension filers who have paid DOR about $700 million, it is nonetheless not excusable.
DOR apologizes to all taxpayers affected. DOR staff will be contacting these 473 taxpayers by phone or mail to let them know what happened and to tell them they can count on DOR to do whatever is necessary to make them whole in the event of late fees, bounced checks, etc.
DOR is working with the affected banks to restore the improperly debited payments as quickly as possible and sincerely regrets this error and the inconvenience it may have caused.
Taxpayers with questions should contact Taxpayer Services at 1-617-887-MDOR or toll free in Massachusetts 1-800-392-6089.