Moral hazard creeps in

By Matt Miner

This morning on the way in to work I learned that tax filers who tried to file late last night with TurboTax were in many cases unable to upload their electronic returns because Intuit's servers were overwhelmed by the trafic.  Of course, the fact that a taxpayer can now file his or her taxes electronically at the last minute has added a whole new meaning to the notion of taking the tax deadline right down to the wire - no more midnight sprints to the USPS - just a frantic, if comical, clicking of buttons on a computer screen.

If any testament was needed to TurboTax's importance to the IRS, however, we got it loud and clear this morning when the IRS agreed to accept these returns late with no penalty.  Mr. Friedland of the IRS urged those impacted to "file as soon as they can."

I wonder how many who missed the deadline outright will say that they tried to file but were prevented from doing so?