KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Now it seems that this year’s tax season may never end. It might just peter out instead.

The Internal Revenue Service and revenue directors in some states have moved filing deadlines four times since Tuesday, the filing target that most of the nation’s approximately 136 million expected filing households were hitting.

The reason: A variety of calamities hitting the system.

And now, as returns continue dribbling in, online tax service giant H&R Block Inc. in Kansas City said Thursday that it would even pick up at least part of any late filing fees that the IRS might charge clients.

Block said Thursday that it would reimburse up to $100 for late filing penalties charged to taxpayers who file 2006 returns before midnight Saturday using the company’s TaxCut Online service or its TaxCut packaged software.

Block said it didn’t have any problems with last-day filing jams that many Intuit TurboTax customers encountered.

“We want to extend late filing benefits to all taxpayers, not just those impacted by the Northeast storms or another company’s e-file issues,” said Tom Allanson, Block’s digital tax solutions group chief.

Tuesday’s filing deadline began unraveling Monday, when massive storms throughout the northeastern U.S. knocked out power, disrupted traffic and generally raised so much havoc that the IRS pushed deadlines back 48 hours, to midnight Thursday, and then until midnight April 26, for those affected to file returns or formally request extensions without paying penalties.

Most taxpayers affected by the storms probably live in the Northeast, but others who perhaps couldn’t get home from the storm to do their taxes or who couldn’t find tax information because of the disruptions qualify for the extra time, the IRS said.

Storm-delayed taxpayers can claim the additional week simply by writing “April 16 Storm” on the returns they file.

Virginia shooting

The IRS also granted six-month filing and payment extensions for anyone directly affected by the Virginia Tech shootings.

Taxpayers needing to claim this extra time should call the IRS at (866) 562-5227.

Meanwhile, so many taxpayers were filing last-minute returns – the IRS’ Free File Alliance members received a record 1.7 million returns Tuesday – that the nation’s largest online provider, TurboTax, began falling behind and then blocked taxpayers out as the deadline approached.

“We know that more than a million returns made it through, at least twice the volume of last year’s filing date,” said Julie Miller, a spokeswoman for Intuit, which publishes TurboTax.

“And, as the problems increased, we talked with the IRS to work out an extension” that was set to end last night, Miller said. Now, Intuit will continue to work with federal and state revenue departments to further extend the grace period for any clients who still couldn’t Thursday’s deadline.

The company also will pay late filing penalties that customers incur because of the delay, plus offer refunds to buyers of its software whose returns were shut out, she said.

“Our focus is on doing the right thing for our customers,” Miller said. “They probably were under a lot of stress already from filing at the last minute, and we are sorry to put them through even more anxiety.”

Block said its online and software system had no problems Tuesday handling what company spokeswoman Denise Sposato described as “very robust” traffic.

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AP-NY-04-19-07 2015EDT