CPAs have taken the initiative to identify this as an ongoing problem with e-Commerce. The AICPA has identified "high availability and resiliency of systems" as one of the Top Ten Technology Issues affecting the accounting profession for 2000.

This issue made the news again this week when H&R Block had to close its Internet site temporarily because of the tremendous number of taxpayers who wanted to fle their return virtually. Block reportedly expected 650,000 people to use the site through April 15, but already have seen about 300,000 returns on the site.

The surge in traffic was too much for the site to handle and it shut down due to heavy volume. A similar situation happened several times last year to other popular sites, including eBay, when traffic became so heavy that the system crashed.

H&R Block has been very high-profile lately with its new financial centers opening in many major cities. Ads have been running on television drawing taxpayers to the meg-giant tax preparer.