I was on the phone with TurboTax on Friday, the 26th, for just under 2 hours according to my phone. First with the initial contact person and then with one of their CPA’s. They linked into my return so they could see the issue. The CPA got a systems person linked in also to see the problem. They asked me if I was willing to transmit a copy of my return to them so they could diagnose and correct the issue. TurboTax automatically strips your personal information off when you do this so I agreed. I too got a job ticket number. I have the number 760261 and an ID number [social security number removed] written down on a post-it next to my laptop. Not sure which one it is. I wanted confirmation that they understood the error and were going to correct the problem as my phone battery was getting low. They told me not to worry. We have your phone number and e-mail address. We definitely will get back to you regarding this problem. I know it has been only two business days (not counting Saturday & Sunday) but, so far, the response back from TurboTax has been zero, nothing, nada, nil.
Frankly, this is a horrendous error for a tax preparation software supplier to have. I mean all errors are bad. But this isn’t like “credit ABC failed to carry to line 11 of form XYZ” or “the tax rate is 10.25% and should be 10.50%”. Part IV doesn’t foot. The additions and subtractions do not equal the bottom number. It doesn’t get anymore basic than that. It’s tax preparation 101. You expect the tax form to foot. Especially a computer generated one from a tax software supplier.
When I overrode one line on Part IV with the correct number, all the other lines changed to the their correct numbers. But, understandably, TurboTax does not allow you to e-file with an override. As they explained to me while I was on the phone, if we allowed overrides, we couldn’t guarantee that the return added up properly. And yet I suspect many people, once they saw Form 2210 finally available, just pulled the trigger and e-filed without double checking that all the numbers tied out properly. Probably with Part IV not footing. And TurboTax allowed this without displaying any error message.
To me this is really a failure of the systems people. I know TurboTax will tell us that the IRS was late in releasing this form and that they have to make the necessary changes once it’s released and then send it back to the IRS for final approval. And I understand all of that. But that doesn’t mean you sit around on your duff while you’re waiting and do nothing. You kind of know how things are going to change. Probably column (b) is going to be “not applicable” this year. The systems people should have been populating the form with various numbers while they were waiting to make sure the form footed and that numbers would appear in the correct columns. In my mind there is simply no excuse for not doing that and ultimately releasing a form to all of us that does not foot.
