So, I have a much better idea of what is happening now for the issue I reported above. For Indiana, the penalty is first calculated using the standard form IT-2210. Then, if you have seasonal/uneven income, and you elect to do so, you can do the annualized installment method for calculating your penalty using the more complex form IT-2210A to help eliminate/reduce your penalty. When I reported the original issue above, I was getting an Indiana state penalty of $192, even after selecting seasonal income, and also NOT being offered to answer the specific questions for seasonal income on the Indiana state taxes portion of TurboTax. So, I downloaded and performed the raw IT-2210 form by hand from the state of Indiana. I calculated a penalty of exactly $192, just like TurboTax. However, TurboTax should be using the IT-2210A form for me, since I selected it during the interview for state. So, I downloaded and performed the IT-2210A form by hand, and my penalty was entirely eliminated, as I had expected, based on my carefully determined estimated tax payments. In fact, I was way overpaid for every Indiana installment period. I spent 3 or 4 hours on the phone with 3 different TurboTax agents. 2 of these calls were live, and 2 of the 3 agents were long-time tax experts. The 3rd agent was just an attempt for me to get back to the original 2 agents, both of whom were supposedly tax experts and one of whom was a manager of the other, as I found out later. Each time, the conclusion from TurboTax is that the software is fine. TurboTax worked correctly for using IT-2210A last year. This year it is completely broken, because based on the detailed analysis above, it clearly isn't using the IT-2210A at all, and it couldn't use it anyways, because after picking Indiana seasonal income, it never even bothers to ask the necessary questions, like the 4 Indiana state adjusted gross incomes for all 4 installment periods and all 4 Indiana state tax credits for all 4 installment periods, which are values that can only be provided by the tax filer. This worked last year, and it still works for the equivalent federal form in TurboTax. Due to this issue, and the inability to get any useful support at all on it, I am forced to do my taxes elsewhere this year. I have elected to do both Federal and State by hand this year, since I can get the correct and expected outcomes (that completely match TurboTax with the exception of TurboTax not processing the IT-2210A for annualization). It's already frustrating to face such critical bugs, but it's even more frustrating to invest countless hours with numerous customer support agents where I did all the work, and then be told everything is fine.
