Turbo Tax Buggy for Anyone Else?

[fairfarmhand]

My dh has been infuriated by the bugs and errors in Turbo Tax this year. Anyone else?

[Lanny]

Which version of TurboTax is your DH using? Which I.R.S. form(s) does he think it is buggy on? Is he using the Online software (in the Cloud, which I recommend) or is he using Software he bought in a store or downloaded from TurboTax?

Today is Tuesday. During the past few days, I did the Federal and State (NC Non-Resident) taxes for my DD and then I did my Federal taxes.  On her return, there was a Form 1098-T involved and a W-2 and a NC Non-Resident return.  I remember Uploading her W-2 and probably just filled in the numbers from the Form 1098-T.

I made one mistake with regard to Educational expenses which resulted in her AGI going down one dollar and that was my fault.  When it prints out the returns (Federal and State) (I don't print it it is a .PDF file) the NC return looks like a lot of gibberish as if it is Machine Readable.

On my return, there is a Schedule C form, which is the one they charge the most for,  for, but I was using IRS Free File so my use of TurboTax was free.

I found it responsive and the only thing I remember seeing is that when I was working on the Federal return for DD, with the Form 1098-T, that several times I clicked  to read the "Help" on a topic and the topic was blank. I suspect they are updating that information.

If your AGI, etc. does not permit you to use IRS Free File, and your DH is not happy with the TurboTax he has, I used TaxACT for a number of years, until there was a huge price increase.  We are overseas, so with our Overseas Address, etc., we can use IRS Free File with TurboTax, TaxACT or Tax Slayer. I have never used Tax Slayer. I am sure they are all good, but nothing is perfect. 

I think your DH should try another product, by another tax preparation company and see if he sees the same issues.   Or, fewer issues...

Oh, doing it "Online" (in the Cloud) yesterday, just before 6 A.M., E.S.T., I was about to submit my 2020 Federal return to be eFiled to the IRS.  Approximately 1 minute before that, I clicked in error and closed the browser tab that was open for TurboTax. As soon as I realized what I had done (How could I do something that stupid?) I opened another browser tab and logged into my TurboTax account again.   My Federal return was submitted to the I.R.S. at 558 A.M., EST and was Accepted by the IRS 23 minutes later.

The Federal return for DD was Accepted by the I.R.S. approximately 3 hours and 10 minutes after being eFiled. The NC state return was Accepted by NC 2 days after being submitted. TurboTax says the returns are usually Accepted in 24 to 48 hours. 

After the Federal returns are "Accepted" by the IRS if you are getting a Refund by Direct Deposit, TurboTax says 9 out of 10 of them are in the bank 21 days or less after that.

The one I have the most experience is TaxACT.  At first, years ago, I used it Free and then I paid a nominal amount (8 to 12 dollars?) for their Premium service. And then one year I went to do my taxes (Federal) and it looked like another company had purchased TaxACT and that is when I went to IRS Free File.  One year I used FreeTaxUSA for DD and me, but then I think the next year when I went to use it again, it would not take an Overseas address or something so I went to IRS.GOV and to FREE FILE and I have been using TurboTax for the past several years.

He should call the U.S. based phone support for TurboTax. It is free. Also, they have a forum. He might look in the forum to see if others are reporting the same issues.

 

[fairfarmhand]

32 minutes ago, Lanny said:

Which version of TurboTax is your DH using? Which I.R.S. form(s) does he think it is buggy on? Is he using the Online software (in the Cloud, which I recommend) or is he using Software he bought in a store or downloaded from TurboTax?

Today is Tuesday. During the past few days, I did the Federal and State (NC Non-Resident) taxes for my DD and then I did my Federal taxes.  On her return, there was a Form 1098-T involved and a W-2 and a NC Non-Resident return.  I remember Uploading her W-2 and probably just filled in the numbers from the Form 1098-T.

I made one mistake with regard to Educational expenses which resulted in her AGI going down one dollar and that was my fault.  When it prints out the returns (Federal and State) (I don't print it it is a .PDF file) the NC return looks like a lot of gibberish as if it is Machine Readable.

On my return, there is a Schedule C form, which is the one they charge the most for,  for, but I was using IRS Free File so my use of TurboTax was free.

I found it responsive and the only thing I remember seeing is that when I was working on the Federal return for DD, with the Form 1098-T, that several times I clicked  to read the "Help" on a topic and the topic was blank. I suspect they are updating that information.

If your AGI, etc. does not permit you to use IRS Free File, and your DH is not happy with the TurboTax he has, I used TaxACT for a number of years, until there was a huge price increase.  We are overseas, so with our Overseas Address, etc., we can use IRS Free File with TurboTax, TaxACT or Tax Slayer. I have never used Tax Slayer. I am sure they are all good, but nothing is perfect. 

I think your DH should try another product, by another tax preparation company and see if he sees the same issues.   Or, fewer issues...

Oh, doing it "Online" (in the Cloud) yesterday, just before 6 A.M., E.S.T., I was about to submit my 2020 Federal return to be eFiled to the IRS.  Approximately 1 minute before that, I clicked in error and closed the browser tab that was open for TurboTax. As soon as I realized what I had done (How could I do something that stupid?) I opened another browser tab and logged into my TurboTax account again.   My Federal return was submitted to the I.R.S. at 558 A.M., EST and was Accepted by the IRS 23 minutes later.

The Federal return for DD was Accepted by the I.R.S. approximately 3 hours and 10 minutes after being eFiled. The NC state return was Accepted by NC 2 days after being submitted. TurboTax says the returns are usually Accepted in 24 to 48 hours. 

After the Federal returns are "Accepted" by the IRS if you are getting a Refund by Direct Deposit, TurboTax says 9 out of 10 of them are in the bank 21 days or less after that.

The one I have the most experience is TaxACT.  At first, years ago, I used it Free and then I paid a nominal amount (8 to 12 dollars?) for their Premium service. And then one year I went to do my taxes (Federal) and it looked like another company had purchased TaxACT and that is when I went to IRS Free File.  One year I used FreeTaxUSA for DD and me, but then I think the next year when I went to use it again, it would not take an Overseas address or something so I went to IRS.GOV and to FREE FILE and I have been using TurboTax for the past several years.

He should call the U.S. based phone support for TurboTax. It is free. Also, they have a forum. He might look in the forum to see if others are reporting the same issues.

 

So my dh does taxes for he and I, my college aged dd, my dd and her husband, his friend, and he filed for his mother who passed away in December.

For everyone but my college age dd it was the paid version of the software that was online in the cloud.

The screen for self employment taxes was really buggy.

Setting up my dd's/sils account and with my mother in laws, it was unclear as to whether he was on the FreeFile software or not until he input a lot of info, and then it said that income was too great for FreeFile (he knew this and didn't realize it was set on the FreeFile account) and he had to input things again. 

He's already finally gotten our stuff submitted, but it was a HUGE headache. We've never had problems before. Some of it is that with the farm, my self employed income, my dh's self employed income, my dd's educational expenses, etc. our tax filing is pretty complicated. So there are more opportunities for bugs to pop up.

My brother in law said that he was having problems today with the Health Savings Account page. 

Dh sent long ANGRY detailed emails.

Thank you for the suggestions for other providers. We may be interested next years.

[Katy]

We’ve used the online version for 5 or 6 years. Not only has it NOT worked every time I logged in this year, they’re sending annoying emails 1-2 times a day to come back and finish. 

[plansrme]

TurboTax gets buggier every year I use it. I used H&R Block last year, and it was marginally better; or maybe it was only annoying in a different way. I swear that TurboTax used to be better.

[fairfarmhand]

2 minutes ago, plansrme said:

TurboTax gets buggier every year I use it. I used H&R Block last year, and it was marginally better; or maybe it was only annoying in a different way. I swear that TurboTax used to be better.

We've used it for years with NO problems. This year was a huge hassle. 

[Amy in NH]

We had used it to Freefile for many years.  This year we are just over the income limit for their freefile, so we used TaxAct instead.  No problem.

[Pawz4me]

DH has done ours, DS22's and started on DS25's using TurboTax. He hasn't mentioned any problems at all.

[Soror]

I've read lots of comments from those having issues this year with it. We moved over to Free Tax USA last year.

[Lanny]

Follow on: When I parted ways with TaxACT, approximately 5 years ago, it was because when I went to their web site it looked like another company had purchased it and instead of me paying 8 to 12 dollars for their Premium service (I had always appreciated their Free service before I upgraded to Premium) there would have been a huge price increase for me.

So, probably  I then went to IRS.GOV and found FreeTaxUSA.  I see in my Passwords that both DD and I have accounts on FreeTaxUSA and I do not remember having any problems with it the year that I submitted our Federal returns with it.  However, the next year, when I went to FreeTaxUSA I discovered that I could not submit our returns with it because of our Overseas Address...

I contacted FreeTaxUSA at that time and they explained to me that it had to do with EU regulations.  We do not live in the EU and we do not have anything to do with the EU.

At that time, I returned to IRS.GOV and used their Free File search and found that our circumstances (overseas address, AGI, etc.) permit us to use TurboTax, TaxACT and TaxSlayer. Possibly others if one doesn't need to submit a State return).  

Sorry to hear about all of the issues with TurboTax. Best to send them short polite messages explaining exactly where it went off the Track.

In the years after the IRS began accepting eFile from Overseas Americans, the TaxACT software is the one we used for the most number of years.

I believe TurboTax is a little easier to use and generally has better help and I greatly appreciate their Free U.S. based phone support, which I used once when I was trying to set it up coming in from IRS.GOV and the FreeFile site, because it kept directing me to paid service and I qualify for Free service. A wonderful woman in Georgia probably spent one hour on the phone with me to get that straightened out and I have never had another reason to contact TurboTax Customer Support.

If you are going to  try another company, I would try TaxACT first.

[mlktwins]

Oh no 😲!  I'm doing my dad's by hand as usual, but I need to do ours and I usually use Turbo Tax without issues.  We are doing my in-laws for the first time this year and I was planning to use Turbo Tax for that.  Can nothing be easy???

I wonder if it's because of needing to program in all the changes due to Covid?  We couldn't even start filing our returns until the last week, which is not the norm.