Tax season on Guam just hit a major roadblock.

The Department of Revenue and Taxation’s online systems has been temporarily shut down, including filing portals residents rely on this time of year.

At the legislature on Monday, senators did not hold back.

“The system is failing and it’s ridiculous. We’re going back to the ice ages right now in having to do this manually,” said Senator Telo Taitague.

“We already know what we need to do every year, every five years and that we can’t get that scheduled and done in advance is very concerning. And then we get held hostage or we get held in very duress situations trying to negotiate a contract, or with no time at all to try to find another vendor. That’s just very concerning,” added Sen. Therese Terlaje.

At the center of the issue is DRT’s maintenance contract with data management resources, LLC which expired on Sept. 30, 2025 due to failed contract negotiations.

After a six-month grace period, the system went offline on March 21.

Lawmakers questioned Director Marie Lizama on what went wrong and why it wasn’t addressed sooner.

“We didn’t think it was going to be a problem,” said Lizama.

Lizama says it’s partly “a funding issue” and that negotiations with the vendor are ongoing.

“Maybe it was sheer bad luck, I don’t know. But we didn’t anticipate for the huge increase,” added Lizama. “Without going into any specific numbers, it was significantly more and certainly not what we had planned for in regards to our budget.”

Speaker Frank Blas Jr. says it’s “causing a nightmare” for senators and warns it could have a domino effect on budget appropriations this year.

“No one anticipated a system breakdown, especially in the most lucrative, for a lack of a better term, time of the year for the government of Guam,” said Blas Jr.

It’s unclear how much tax revenue GovGuam could lose out on.

Taxpayers can still file income taxes and make payments in person, but processing returns and refunds are on hold until systems are restored.

“Collections are still able to accept payments because they are able to see what was previously assessed. What we won’t be able to see if there are any accruals,” added Lizama.

Lizama adds DRT is still working out a plan for what happens if gross receipts tax returns are not filed in time and are considering waiving late fees.

Meantime, residents are also unable to renew their driver’s license and guam id services during the system outage.

KUAM asked the Guam Police Department whether they will continue to ticket drivers with expired licenses, but have not received word as of newstime.

Gretchen Ann Klippenstein

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