Taxpayers frustrated by delays in Intuit Inc.’s tax-processing capabilities will have until midnight on April 19 to electronically file their returns.The Internal Revenue Service and Intuit said that as many as several hundred thousand last-minute tax filers were affected by Intuit’s server problems Tuesday night -- meaning that they, or their accountants, may have been unable to electronically file returns.
Intuit said affected taxpayers and tax professionals include those using TurboTax, ProSeries, Lacerte and the company’s Free File offering, TurboTax Freedom.
Intuit said that a flood of last-minute tax filers caused hour-long delays in getting forms transmitted to the government, a process that usually takes only a few minutes for a taxpayer to receive confirmation of successful submission.
According to published reports, the company's server farm near San Diego processed more than a million returns on Tuesday alone, twice the amount during the peak-filing day last year, according to press reports. At peak times, Intuit was processing 50 to 60 returns per second.
Intuit said yesterday that its system was again running normally and that it is already studying ways to ensure the delays don't occur again next year.
The IRS will not apply late filing penalties to taxpayers who were affected by the problems.
Seperately, the agency again extended the filing deadline for taxpayers affected by the major storm that hit the northeast United States on Monday. Those taxpayers will now have until April 26 to file their tax returns, and can simply mark their paper tax returns with the words, “April 16 Storm,” or use the “Disaster” feature available in tax prep software programs.
On Tuesday, the IRS granted a six-month tax filing and payment extension to those affected by the shootings at Virginia Tech.
