Brief: Intuit TurboTax Users Get Filing Extension

This is what strikes fear in the hearts of IT pros: A company knows a surge of online customers is coming, yet still its data center isn't ready.

Intuit, owner of the TurboTax software, last week said its servers were overwhelmed by the number of filers attempting to submit their taxes at the last minute. 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.

The foul-up didn't sit well with already desperate taxpayers trying to hit the April 17 deadline. "This isn't some dumb fun and games Web site, this is submitting your income taxes!" huffed one customer on Intuit's support forum.

Intuit officials weren't available for comment. The problem caused the IRS to extend the deadline to midnight April 19 for TurboTax users who couldn't file electronically. But plenty have gotten through: 75 million tax returns had been filed electronically as of last week, compared with 73 million last year.