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Three things I hate about TurboTax
When I first used TurboTax, I thought it was about the best thing since sliced bread. But that was about ten years ago, and boy, has the product gone downhill. The interviews used to be easy to follow and they took you down all the right paths to complete your return in one swell foop. This year, it’s different.
#1 The long and winding road. The interview didn’t follow the correct path. On my W-2, there’s an entry that indicates pre-tax money that I set aside for dependent care. It helps pay for my son’s daycare while I work. Turbo didn’t tell me that I needed to fill out Form 2441 until I went to check my return (just before filing). A small window opened. I was asked to enter an obscure code and amount. There was no help offered. I went to the IRS website to download the form and instructions. When I returned to Turbo and entered the requested data, the amount of my return suddenly jumped (ok, that’s good news), since the amount set aside for daycare was now actually not taxed.
#2 I get to enter all my data twice. I live in Massachusetts and am legally married to my same-sex partner. The Commonwealth recognizes us as married, but Uncle Sam does not (at least not yet). Therefore, for the Federal tax, one of us files Single and the other files Head of Household, claiming our son as dependent. For the State tax, we fill out a bogus Federal return as married (I’m not making this up — these are the TurboTax instructions), and then use it to compute the Massachusetts tax. Wouldn’t it have been simple for TurboTax to let you merge the tax info from Person A and Person B and create a married form? But, nooooo. I have to start with one of our forms and manually add to it all the data from the other person.
#3 Creates deforestation. My taxes are really not that complicated (despite the issues raised in #2), yet TurboTax creates 99 pages for my return. Ninety-nine! Seventy-five for the Federal government, and the rest for the Commonwealth. And, of course, there’s another 99 for my partner’s return, and another 99 for the aforementioned bogus Federal “married” return. If I actually printed it out, that’s a good inch or so of paper. Thankfully, they included a pdf version a few years ago, so I keep an electronic copy of the full return, and I just print out the eight or so pages that I actually might want to read later.
TurboTax, are you listening?
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You nailed it. I had enough last year and the cost became too much. I tried a few different vendors this year and liked freetaxusa.com. It was extremely stripped down and that’s exactly why I liked it so much. No overblown tutorials, no double entry garbage, and no winding road. I think TurboTax was a breakthrough, but they need to do something to streamline it. They have a $660 million R&D budget, you’d think they could start breaking down the product into segments for experienced and inexperienced software users…starting to rant…great post and couldn’t agree more.
Ms. Maynard…. Thanks for taking the time to write about your experience with TurboTax. Yes, we are listening.
It sounds like you MAY have missed entering the dependent care code on Form W-2. This code triggers the questions needed to complete Form 2441. If the correct code is not entered from the actual Form W-2, then TurboTax won’t know the precise nature of the amount entered.
It truly is a hassle to have to do your federal return twice to comply with the tax rules in MA when it comes to same sex married couples. California has the same set of twisted, complex rules. But it is the nature of these rules and the fact that the IRS does not recognize same sex married couples as joint filers that causes the filing hassles. TurboTax is so far ahead of the competitors in this area. While we certainly make the process much easier than any alternative, the fact remains that the process is a pain regardless of how you do it. Even the tax pros have to go through the same gyrations to get a joint return for MA (or other comparable state) from 2 single federal returns.
I’m glad that you are aware of the PDF functionality in TurboTax so you don’t have to print all the paper. However, if you select to print “Tax Return”, I’ll bet your federal and state paper will shrink to probably around 20 or less from 99. I suspect you have selected “tax return and all supporting worksheet” for your records. I don’t recommend this option unless you like your return documented thoroughly. For most filers, selecting “Print Tax Return” is the best option.
Thanks for your feedback. It is helpful in developing our plans for next year.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
Dear Mr. Meighan,
First of all, thank you very much for addressing my concerns. I am impressed that you (and your company) take the time to respond to complaints on even small blogs.
I double-checked my W-2. There is no code on the W-2 regarding Dependent Care. The W-2 was prepared by ADP, a very large (if not the largest) employment recordkeeping company. While it is possible I took a detour on the interview process, I ended up at a place where a very small window opened up and I was asked to enter an obscure code with no descriptive help offered. TurboTax is still a good product, but every obstacle one has to overcome to finish the process diminishes the confidence that the program has computed the tax correctly.
In my first years of using TurboTax, I would have given it an “A”; today I would give it a “B”.
With respect to the issue of income taxes for gay couples. I really think it wouldn’t be that hard to modify the program to enable it to merge two files together. I’d love to see that in next year’s version.
Thanks again for reading and responding.
Best regards,
Helen.
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I have tried for weeks to get the turbotax dvds i paid for. I ordered the hard copies after I was unable to download or get anyone to answer questions about why …this year…I cant download.
There is never a person. No one works there anymore.
I think they fired the smart guys and kept someone’s idiot brother-in-law.
If they charge my credit card and don’t send the dvds, I will file a consumer complaint with all the agencies that will let me do it.
Hi d,
Sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with TurboTax.
In general they’ve been a good company for me. As with any credit card purchase, if they fail to deliver the goods, you have the right to withhold payment. Just be sure to write your credit card company and Intuit (or wherever you purchased the software) to explain. You are still obligated to pay the balance on your credit card, except for the charge in dispute.
Good luck!