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My point was that I've NEVER EVER paid quarterly estimated taxes ahead of time and ONLY ALWAYS paid at time of filing my taxes in April of the year following the year I'm filing (like pay in April 2025 for the year 2024) and YET, I've had to pay quite a bit MORE in the past re Federal Tax, than I paid this year...and the IRS NEVER CONTACTED ME AND IT'S NOT ANYWHERE ON MY IRS ACCOUNT I CAN SEE ONLINE.  I looked and looked and looked for some past amount owed for failure to pay estimated taxes ahead of time...this is something I didn't even know I had to do  as I have not worked for money since the  year 2002, and I never made enough most years to even have to pay ANY income taxes (my social security is only $521 per month, for example) so this is not something I was even aware of since NO ONE TOLD me, including  the IRS, that this was necessary.  I knew it 'existed' for some people to do, but I assumed it was only for self-employed people, which I am not.   So I am perplexed as to why suddenly I am supposed to be doing this, when before even owing more and waiting until the following April to pay my tax, I was not penalized.  The only time the IRS has ever contacted me about anything at all was back in 2012 when I hadn't filed for 2 years (2010 & 2011) because of lots of reasons not important here, and so they did those 2 years for me and I ended up owing something like $50 or less for my Federal Income Taxes, plus a small fine of about $10 for failure to file; I'm quite sure that the IRS spent significantly more $$$ collecting this from me than the pathetically small amount that I owed them.  I'm not exactly rolling in money, I'm on Medicaid (called AHCCCS in Arizona).  Maybe I can given a pass this time because honestly I had no idea I had to do this but now that I know, I can and will.  (My income fluctuates wildly from one year to the next so it's hard to plan ahead but I think I can maybe manage to muster up $150 a month somehow, even though other than my meager social security, I don't get most of my income until the last week of December.  However if I lose my Medicaid due to Orange Mussolini and his gloating billionaires club, I'll be in big trouble and I'm very worried about that because then I'll lose quite a bit of my minimal social security to pay for Part B of Medicare, plus copays & for medicine and all that jazz and basically won't be able to afford medical care because of that.   And the small kind of rural community clinic with a sliding scale that treats mostly people on Medicare and AHCCCS (where I go) will go out of business.  So the nuts and bolts clinic staff will lose their jobs and those on the clerical end of things will maybe become unemployed and impoverished as a result.   I have several permanent partial disabilities that have made working for money difficult for decades, and now at age 73 impossible...but I don't receive "disability payments" because I'm not quite impoverished enough for that.  What this means is that you have to be almost living in a dumpster and surviving on the discarded/expired food from grocery stores to qualify.  Of course that's a bit of an exaggeration, but lately it's not all that far off from the truth.   Then if you do get it, you can afford rental housing in a crime infested neighborhood that actually should be condemned for being structurally unsound and unsafe.  I know a few people in that situation, but they are happy just to have a roof over their head and a donated bicycle to get to dumpsters for the food & clothes they can salvage, and to churches and foodbanks.  I myself have fortunately been spared this type of degradation but I am well aware of its reality, and these people are not drug addicts nor are they mentally ill, they are just impoverished seniors.  But, it Could happen to me in the future, becoming homeless.  Meanwhile I'll be a good girl and pay my taxes, while the Billionaires, who are completely clueless about & clearly don't care at all about the lives of the less fortunate, are doing Just Fine.  All Hail Orange Mussolini! 

After your return is processed and any refund paid, you can file an amended return to add the donation.  There's no particular reason this would trigger an audit over any other kind of change to your return.

If you submitted your state tax returns by 1pm CST on the 15th, but they were accepted on the 16th, you generally won't be subject to a late filing penalty, especially since you don't owe money to either state    States typically consider the submission time rather than the acceptance time for determining lateness   For more details, you can refer to TurboTax's state tax tips   Reach back your state - to check on state-specific rules.

The 1040SR is EXACTLY the same as the regular 1040 just bigger type so it prints on 3 pages instead of 2.  And the Standard Deduction is on page 4.  They both use the same instructions and tax calculations.   When you print it will print on the 1040SR even if you see only the 1040 on the screen.  You automatically get the 1040SR if you or your spouse is 65 or older.  In the Desktop program you can tell it which one to print.     If you use the Desktop program you can switch to forms and the Info Wks part II has a selection to select 1040SR or not.  You can not change it in the Online versions.   In the Online version if you want to use the regular 1040 form, you can print out the 1040SR and copy the amounts onto a blank 1040 and then mail your return.

After you bought it at Costco did you go to the customer service window to get the actual package with the License Code?   Sorry you got stuck in the Online version.   I buy from Costco too.  Don’t know what you can do now.  Take your receipt and cardboard back to Costco and try to get a refund especially since it seems you didn’t get the actual package.  Too bad you didn’t stop and post before you paid so we could direct you to how to install the Desktop program.     

Once again you are providing the answer to something I spent an hour trying to figure out, and ultimately figured out without your help. My question is, why can’t Turbo Tax make it clearer to the user that income received on a W-2 from a nonqualified pension gets transferred to Schedule 1 and ultimately line 8 on 1040. I freaked out when I didn’t see the amount I entered on my W-2 on line 1a and spent an hour of my valuable time researching  this when I wanted to be doing something else. In fact I was concerned about the credibility of the Turbo Tax program. 

Sorry, my email responses apparently don't reach you. Both efile attempts were rejected for lack of IP PIN, code IND-181-01.  If I had an IP PIN before those two attempts I was not aware of it.   Of course I meant irs.gov and that was how I got my IP PIN that I was finally able to enter on TurboTax.  I also entered the first 5 digits as my signature PIN (not that it makes any difference).  With the IP PIN entered my third efile attempt was actually accepted.   As an aside, I have been using TurboTax for many years and have never had so much trouble as I have had this year (2024) with the PIN confusion and with the RMD reporting (where I took distribution from one IRA to cover RMD for another IRA). Maybe I am getting too old for filing my own taxes but hopefully TurboTax will "correct" those two situations next year. Thanks for your attention and responses. Gerr

When you purchase the desktop product, you have to download and install the software.  You should have a license code from Costco or the retailer you purchased from.    How do I get started with TurboTax Desktop?   How do I request a refund for my TurboTax product? To speak with someone, Contact Support 

Go back to the Schedule C section in TurboTax and review your entries for your business for this year, specifically the at-risk questions, to make sure you didn't identify any of your investments as not at-risk.    Investment funds not at-risk include:   Nonrecourse loans used to finance the business, to acquire property used in the business, or to acquire the business that are not secured by your own property (other than property used in the business). However, there is an exception for certain nonrecourse financing borrowed by you in connection with holding real property. Cash, property, or borrowed amounts used in the business (or contributed to the business, or used to acquire the business) that are protected against loss by a guarantee, stop-loss agreement, or another similar arrangement (excluding casualty insurance and insurance against tort liability). Amounts borrowed for use in the business from a person who has an interest in the business, other than as a creditor, or who is related under section 465(b)(3)(C) to a person (other than you) having such an interest. If you didn't borrow funds to finance the business or its assets under circumstances such as these, then you can answer "not applicable".   See IRS Publication 925 and this TurboTax tips article for more information regarding the at-risk rules.   @bstevens2 

No, you cannot download TurboTax to an iPad.   Please see these TurboTax Help Articles for some troubleshooting tips: How do I get started with TurboTax Desktop? How do I file a 2023, 2022, or 2021 tax return? Troubleshooting TurboTax Desktop for Mac Issues  

You are not answering my question. Why can’t Turbo Tax step by step inform the user that it automatically prints 1040 as 1040-SR and inform the user how to change this? I spent an hour freaking out trying to figure out what was going on. 

I called support and “Elizabeth” figured it out. In the space where they ask you to type your ECN or “no or pending ECN” simply type “pending”. My mistake was that I was typing “pending ECN”. Just type “pending”. 🤦🏽‍♀️

No, you can file a separate return in CA because your husband has no CA income.   A separate return only includes one spouse's income.  When you prepare the MFS CA return, you will report only your share of the income reported on your federal return.   Generally, CA requires you to use the same filing status as you did on your federal return, but there are 2 exceptions.  If you file a joint return for federal purposes, you may file separately for California if either spouse was one of the following:   An active member of the United States armed forces or any auxiliary military branch during the year A nonresident for the entire year and had no income from California sources during the year      From IRS Pub 555 - Generally, separate property is:  • Property that you or your spouse (or your RDP) owned separately before your marriage (or registered domestic partnership);  • Money earned while domiciled in a noncommunity property state;  • Property that you or your spouse (or your RDP) received separately as a gift or inheritance during your marriage (or registered domestic partnership);  • Property that you or your spouse (or your RDP) bought with separate funds, or acquired in exchange for separate property, during your marriage (or registered domestic partnership);  • Property that you and your spouse (or your RDP) converted from community property to separate property through an agreement valid under state law; and  • The part of property bought with separate funds, if part was bought with community funds and part with separate funds.