Intuit's servers were overwhelmed by the number of filers attempting to submit their taxes at the last minute on Tuesday.
Users of Intuit's TurboTax software who were unable to electronically file their taxes by the April 17 deadline due to a server glitch now have until midnight on Thursday to get their returns in without penalty, an IRS spokesman said Wednesday.
"We're holding taxpayers who had those problems harmless," said the spokesman.
Earlier, Intuit conceded that its servers were overwhelmed by the number of filers attempting to submit their taxes at the last minute on Tuesday. As a result, thousands of TurboTax users received error warnings instead of confirmation messages after attempting to send their tax forms to the IRS over the Internet.
"We encourage customers to continue to try to e-file; if you have been unable to successfully transmit, please try again," said a statement posted Wednesday on Intuit's Web site.
Understandably, the foul-up did not sit well with already desperate taxpayers trying to get their returns to Uncle Sam before Tuesday's deadline. "This isn't some dumb fun and games website, this is submitting your income taxes!," wrote a poster on Intuit's support forum identified as 'Broken Servers'.
Last month, Intuit said sales of its TurboTax desktop software declined 2% through March 17, while use of its Internet-based TurboTax for the Web offering increased 4%.
The IRS said 75 million tax returns have been filed electronically so far this year, compared to 73 million last year.
Intuit officials were not immediately available for comment.
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