The Internal Revenue Service today gave TurboTax customers who were unable to file electronically Tuesday an extension until midnight Thursday.

Intuit, the company that makes the popular tax software, reported that its electronic-filing back-end system was overloaded on Tuesday, making it impossible for an unknown number of users of all the company's tax software products to meet the government's April 17 deadline for filing 2006 returns.

"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 said in a news release posted on its Web site this afternoon. "The IRS will not apply late filing penalties to taxpayers who were affected by this problem."

It's the second extension the IRS has announced today. Earlier, the agency said taxpayers affected by the major storm that hit the northeast on Monday would have until April 26 to file. The agency had initially given storm victims until the 19th, but decided to grant an additional week because storm-related power outages and public transportation problems were making it impossible for some taxpayers and accountants to make the new deadline.