Totally agree with this. MS had us wait until Feb. 17 for last year's downloadable data so they could make sure it's right... well it wasn't, Now we're all paying the price for cost cutting and lack of basic Software Quality Assurance (SQA).
I feel a bit similarly about SQA at TT. In the last couple years, TT has allowed me to enter incorrect or implausible data. Without warning or visibility, it then files a tax form with a penalty amount that I would have to pay if I didn't go through all the forms it is about to file and review them line by line. I have not had this problem before using TT for more than two decades!
Therefore, I believe if TT made the "N" field visible with a simple explanation of what it meant, and let us correct it, then we would not have this problem. That is, most people would have recognized they were not nominees and click on, "no, I am not a nominee". Other people, such as those having hundreds of transactions, would have additionally notified MS. MS would have fixed their error, and re-uploaded the proper data (for everyone) to the IRS. This would make everyone's 1040 consistent with MS's IRS upload.
Thus, for most people with only a few sales, the "N" correction process would have been relatively painless and confusion-free. As it turned out though, many of us would simply have entered a "0" in the adjustments field from within the error check system just to get our taxes done! This would have resulted in a 1040 inconsistent with new data MS transmitted to the IRS once they had fixed their bug. Believe me, that's not the way you want to go...
In summary, I think requesting that TT be able to deal with imported data in a more visible and understandable way (instead of in Error Check) is a reasonable request. After all, that's the reason why many of us buy TT every year... to simplify a stressful and unpleasant task.
Also, a big thanks to all who called MS to put this issue on the top of their list!
