Thanks. There are numerous ways in my eyes that Turbotax could be improved. The two main areas I struggle with every single year are state returns and estimated taxes both Federal and State.
One way to start would be to restore the feedback function that allowed the user to send feedback while they were in the program. That function could be improved by facilitating screenshots and page references for developers.
I found it exceedingly difficult this year to be able to see the decision for standard versus itemized deductions. A readily visible weeksheet should be standard in both the federal and state returns, not least because my state (NY) allows a different decision to be made on the state vs the federal return. Also the instructions very much need to be improved. By trial and error, opening forms at random, I discovered that the information is on NY State form IT-196. Nowhere does the program tell you this.
In the past I have prepared returns for other states than NY (CA and CT). TurboTax continues to download and install these states. There appears to be no way to stop that from happening. I have tried asking in these forums without success.
Sometimes TurboTax asks for data it already has. This year it asked me, in the NY return, how much I had contributed over the years to the NY 529 plan. Rather than enter the number and display the contributions by year and then advise me to check it the program forces the user to crawl around, see where the data exists and then add it up by hand. Just stupid.
My most longstanding gripe is how TurboTax deals with estimated taxes. It nay be that the vast majority of taxpayers are not required to file them, but I expect the percentage is much higher for TT Premium users. TT needs a much more granular approach to the estimated taxes questionnaire and/or worksheet allowing the user to update the elements of income, in particular, by line item rather than present the user with a question on "all other income and losses you expect".
The NY state return also needs better questions re estimated taxes as today the user is forced to crawl around in the actual form / worksheet.
