I got the same "Turbotax desktop $45 premium service fee applies" message on the "How would you like to Pay" screen just before eFiling. Nothing on the Turbotax screen explained it, so I had to look it up in Google to find out that it was showing because the "How would you like to Pay" window defaults to "Pay with Federal Refund" for my State eFiling fee. There was NO message on the Turbotax screen that said paying with a credit card would avoid this $45 fee. Even when clicking on the "Pay with credit card" button, the $45 message did not go away. It wasn't until I had entered all my credit card information that I could see the amount to be billed on my card did not include this $45 Premium fee. TurboTax should have a clear message on the "How Would You Like To Pay" screen to explain to users the $45 fee only applies to paying from your Federal refund, and the screen should immediately remove the "$45 Turbotax Premium Service applies" message when the user highlights the "Pay with credit card" button.
