Who's running the show here, anyway? I'm completely flabbergasted by the IRS announcement today obsolving tens of thousands of Intuit customers from late-filing penalties caused by yesterday's server problems. While I understand, (I am, above all, a pragmatist) the idea a carving out special treatment for certain taxpayers based on their selection of tax perparation software just seems wrong. Had I failed to file because my copy of "Bob's Tax Prep Pro" had failed I doubt I'd be afforded the same consideration. Intuit will deservedly suffer the judgement of the marketplace, but, in my opinion our government should have taken the opportunity to extract a "pound of flesh", too.
The IRS announcement, which appeared on their site this afternoon, is reprinted below.
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Taxpayers, Tax Professionals with TurboTax Problems Have Until Midnight April 19 to e-file
R-2007-91
April 18, 2007 WASHINGTON —
Taxpayers who were unable to e-file their tax returns Tuesday using Intuit Inc. software products have until midnight on Thursday, April 19, to file their returns, the Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday. Potentially up to several hundred thousand last-minute tax filers were affected by company server problems on Tuesday evening, and they or their accountants may have been unable to electronically file returns. Intuit confirmed Wednesday that those problems had been resolved, and it was successfully accepting e-file returns on Wednesday. The company said affected taxpayers and tax professionals include those using “TurboTax,” “ProSeries,” “Lacerte” and Intuit’s Free File offering,“TurboTax Freedom.”
Intuit product users who were unable to file their returns through the company’s servers Tuesday should e-file as soon as possible. The IRS will not apply late filing penalties to taxpayers who were affected by this problem. Overall, the IRS has seen a strong year for e-filing. Taxpayers filed more than 75 million returns electronically through April 17, shattering last year’s record of 73.2 million.
E-file and Free File will remain available through Oct. 15, 2007, to taxpayers who have requested a six-month filing extension.
