If, as you say, this has been a known problem for several years, it appears that TurboTax has deliberately left the glitch in. I clicked "no" three times to remove the audit defense as something I wanted to buy. And despite my clear indication that I didn't want the service, the software still would not let me file.
Finally I paid the ransom and TurboTax accepted my money (my bank says so). But I still can't file my taxes because Turbo says I didn't pay---so, back to the endless loop.
Needless to say, this is the last time I will buy or use TurboTax. There's an element of contempt toward consumers in this company's practices since it has known about this problem for some time and refuses to fix it.
