CHARLESTON — For taxpayers who tried to pay their third installment on their personal income tax bill by a Sunday deadline and encountered issues, the West Virginia Tax Division is extending the deadline as it works on website issues.

According to an administrative notice filed Monday afternoon and signed by State Tax Commissioner Matthew Irby, the deadline for tax returns, payments, and other filings was extended to Wednesday, Sept. 18. The administrative notice cited computer system and technology issues encountered Sunday and Monday by the Tax Division and taxpayers.

According to State Code, payments for estimated personal income taxes are due on the 15th of June, September, and January of each year. The deadline for filing taxes each calendar year is April 15.

“For those taxpayers attempting to make a 3rd quarter estimated payment due September 15th, the deadline is now September 18, 2024,” a spokesperson for the Tax Division said in an email. “Taxpayers can make their estimated payments online via MyTaxes, drop them off in person at any of our Regional Office locations, or mail in their estimated payments to the Tax Division. For mailed in payments, taxpayers should ensure that the envelope is properly addressed and postmarked by the deadline.”

The MyTaxes payment portal at tax.wv.gov went offline Monday evening for more than two hours for website maintenance. Some taxpayers – trying to make their third installment payment by the Sept. 15 deadline – reported Sunday that MyTaxes was inaccessible for most of that day.

Personal income tax collections make up nearly 40% of the total tax collections for the state’s general revenue budget. During fiscal year 2024 which ended in June, the state collected more than $2.2 billion in personal income tax revenue, bringing the total tax collections for the previous fiscal year to more than $5.7 billion.

The state ended the previous fiscal year with more than 826 million in surplus tax collections, with more than 28% of those collections coming from more than $235 million in surplus personal income tax collections.

Gov. Jim Justice and the Republican-led West Virginia Legislature have been working on cutting personal income tax rates with an eye towards phasing out the personal income tax. The governor and lawmakers passed a tax reform package in 2023 that cut personal income tax rates by 21.25%, returning approximately $483 million to taxpayers annually.

Another 4% cut in personal income tax rates will go into effect in January 2025 thanks to a formula and trigger mechanism in the 2023 law allowing for additional tax cuts up to 10% every calendar year going forward. That cut will return $93 million to taxpayers when fully implemented.

Justice said he will call lawmakers into a special session on Monday, Sept. 30 — just under two weeks away — to consider an additional 5% personal income tax cut, which would return approximately $115 million to taxpayers when fully implemented.