Mel McAulton files his federal and state taxes electronically at the same time every year, and expects his refund check at about the same time, too.

This year, he didn't hear anything about his refund, so he called the state tax office.

He didn't like the answer.

His returns weren't in the system.

"I am way past frustrated," said Mel McAulton who spent several days last week trying to understand what happened.

Turns out the state tax office was upgrading its computer software to sync up with the federal government.

The Internal Revenue Service rolled out its system at the end of January.

The state offered this explanation as to why it couldn’t find McAulton’s returns in its data base.

"It might have been rejected because our system was not ready to accept it yet. We didn’t open ours up until February," said Tax Spokeswoman Mallory Fujitani.

The state told McAulton he would have to refile.