Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Documenting a bug or limitation in TurboTax is not the same as fixing it, so this is somewhat disappointing as a result.

Anyway, probably the best way to work around the TurboTax problem is to just go to the New York tax web site and schedule the estimated tax payments to be made from a bank account automatically.  General instructions for doing this are on:

https://www.tax.ny.gov/pay/ind/pay-estimated-tax.htm

There is a link there that says the estimated tax payments can be scheduled by approved commercial software:

https://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/efile/homepc.htm 

TurboTax is on the list, there is nothing that I could find saying it is limited to one payment, so just a bug or restriction, nothing at the New York end of things.

But anyway, the process to schedule these payments yourself on the New York state account would be:

1. Go to the first link:  https://www.tax.ny.gov/pay/ind/pay-estimated-tax.htm

2. Navigate to the bottom, click on the [Login] button (or [Create an Account] if this is your first time)

3. Basically on the next screen, Login or Create an Account

4. Pretty much from there, you should be able to see previous estimated tax payments (if any)

5. From there, you just look for Make a Payment, click on that, follow the directions (Estimated Tax Payment, Quarter, etc.)

You can just use the TurboTax calculated amounts, you will need a checkbook handy for the routing codes, etc.  If you have paid before this way, the banks will be listed, you just pick the one you want (or specify a new one).  It is all really simple, probably takes about 5-10 minutes total (at least after getting everything set up).

I guess I will note one work-around to the NYS site, sometimes it can be a little picky on browsers or cookies, so if you have trouble with Chrome or whatever, switch to another browser (Firefox, for example, Safari on a Mac).

I suppose someone should report the problem/limitation for TurboTax to New York state, so they can update their help pages/support pages.