TurboTax E-filing Glitch continues to reverberate--Fee questioned

As we previously noted, Intuit's servers choked on the volume of last-minute tax returns causing the IRS to grant a two-day extension for those caught in the glitch. This raises the question as to why the tax software companies are allowed by IRS to charge for e-filing when they do nothing more than aggregating the returns and passing them on. Intuit charges $17 to e-file using TurboTax and H&R Block charges $15 to e-file using TaxCut. However, e-filing could be direct to the IRS and save these charges.

The New York Times confirmed that H&R Block's TaxCut customers did not experience a last-minute e-filing glitch. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]