irs.gov access denied
As treasurer of a nonprofit it's my duty to submit IRS form 990N yearly to confirm 501c3 status. This is an online form. No paper form is available. Last year I filed with little difficulty.
This year (2016) I had to create a login. I did this and when I pressed enter it sent me to a blank page (https://sa.www4.irs.gov/eauth/eauthController.jsp?actionName=CreateProfileProxy.) I spent a couple hours on the phone trying to resolve the problem. I got several suggestions (try a different browser, update acrobat) which didn't pan out. After each suggestion I logged in and the page said "if image and phrase are incorrect (they were incorrect) don't proceed." The page gave no clues on how to proceeed. Finally I logged in again and created a different password and different security responses. Voila! I got the form 990N page, filled in the form and clicked "submit" only to get the following page:
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://sa.www4.irs.gov/epostcard/secure/990n/forms/organization/address/" on this server.
Reference #18.b3fd4317.1456946747.1ace178
Note: I experienced exactly the same Access denied page in 2017!
Since the page gave no clues about why access was denied or how to gain access I called the IRS help number (1-877-829-5500.) I called 3 times, each involving a wait of 10s of minutes. In all cases I was put on hold while the responder looked for a solution, but in no case did I get an actual solution.
In a series of go arounds with the online IRS Help Desk I was told first to look at web pages and then to dial the help number. I responded that these were no help. After the 4th go around the help desk finally grasped that pages and phone numbers were no help.
A Google search of "irs.gov" for "access denied" was likewise no help.
This morning I logged in again. Everything went smoothly. I received confirmation instead of "access denied."
Despite the fact that I eventually succeeded, I dealt with 3 different dead end pages all of which caused aggravation and confounded IRS telephone responders. What are now dead end pages should contain workaround info! This is a serious software problem!
Operating system - Windows Vista Home Premium (x64) (build 9600)
Browser name and version - Google Chrome Version 48.0.2564.116
URL Name - https://sa.www4.irs.gov/epostcard/secure/home/
Steps to get to the page - https://sa.www4.irs.gov/epostcard/secure/profile/ein,
https://sa.www4.irs.gov/epostcard/secure/990n/forms/organization/,
https://sa.www4.irs.gov/epostcard/secure/990n/forms/organization/address/
Specific URL on the page where the problem occurred - see above
Detailed description of the issue - see above
Version of Adobe - Acrobat Reader DC Version 15.10.20056.167417
My hardware and software are standard and not likely contributors to the problems.