I'm jumping in here as a supporter of having Intuit add the ability to e-file an extension to the desktop version of TurboTax. It's really frustrating to have a desktop package that does so much but a simple thing like that gets left off. And it's clear that they know how to do it, or their on-line version wouldn't work, either. At the very least, it would be helpful if, when you get to that part to enter the things for the extension form (which SHOULD be autofilled but with the ability to override them) it should tell you "Don't bother looking for a way to e-file this. It doesn't exist." All their online help should also say, while the form can be generated by the desktop version of the software, it CANNOT be e-filed from there, so while it isn't quite useless, it's close.
I did bite the bullet and filed an extension using the online version. I was tempted to do it on the IRS e-file site, instead, but I didn't. I'm finding that TurboTax seems to be pushing a little harder on selling the extras every year. Even the fact that I don't have physical installation media is annoying to me. This is my tenth year using TurboTax. Before I started using it I used an online service at taxact.com and I will consider going back to that next year.
