Maryland comptroller system outage delays tax return process, underscores need for updating

A systems outage alert on the front page of the Comptroller of Maryland’s website.

The Comptroller’s Office of Maryland said they’re currently experiencing a systems outage that is making it hard for residents to access their tax returns and requests.

Since Monday, March 6, when they were made aware of an issue within the office’s tax return processing software, there has been a delay in “processing tax returns, refund requests and direct debit requests,” the comptroller’s office said in a statement on Monday.



An alert on the front page of its website said tax returns could still be filed electronically, but that the office could not access its online systems in order to answer questions from residents regarding their returns nor the status of their refunds.

The comptroller’s office recently hired its first Chief Information Officer Robert O’Connor, who served as CIO for the Baltimore County Government Enterprise Strategic Plan.

“Throughout my career of centralizing and building strong IT teams, I have learned that a positive culture and hardworking people are the greatest paths to success,” O’Connor said in a statement.

“Under the leadership and vision of this office, we will continue to modernize, secure, and create user-friendly systems that improve efficiencies and foster collaboration among state agencies to build a more equitable Maryland for all.”

The comptroller’s office said that an outage of this magnitude “underscores the urgent need to modernize our systems,” which they plan to work on under the new leadership of O’Connor.

“Under our new leadership, we are redoubling our efforts to push forward expediently to provide better service to all Marylanders,” they said.

Ciara Wells

Ciara Wells is the Evening Digital Editor at WTOP. She is a graduate of American University where she studied journalism and Spanish. Before joining WTOP, she was the opinion team editor at a student publication and a content specialist at an HBCU in Detroit.

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