topic Re: Program Updates in Education

Program Updates

AndrewQQ — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 14:23:43 GMT

T/T just updated my program to the 7/19/19 version. when I click the "MORE DETAILS" hyperlink, it brings me to a generic page https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/home/misc/03/en-us for BOTH the Program Updates and Federal Tax Forms updates that were in the successful update box. Where's the details?? How does one find out what was in these updates, this worked fine earlier this year. (The Program Update box even has the word "CRITICAL" so I want to see what happened here.)

Re: Program Updates

DoninGA — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 14:27:34 GMT

The More Details link has been broken for several months waiting for a fix from the TurboTax programmers. As yet, no fix.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for the latest release information - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/using-turbotax/help/turbotax-release-notes-for-windows-personal-tax-software/01/26799

Re: Program Updates

AndrewQQ — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 14:59:12 GMT

Thank you. I don't get why this continues to be such a problem with them. When the tax season opens, it takes months for the links to eventually work, now they don't work again. This is what we used to call in the business (I designed operating systems for a rather large computer company for 30+ years) a SMOP..."a small matter of programming". It always amazes me that if they can't get this simple thing to point to a documentation file correctly, why do I trust the program to actually perform accurately in the tax calculations???

Re: Program Updates

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 16:20:44 GMT

when I started preparing tax returns decades ago, there were no computers so they had to be done by hand. I could carry a copy of the Internal Revenue Code - 1 volume that could be carried in one hand. over the next 5 decades the US Congress has seen fit to make the code so complicated only the simplest returns can be prepared correctly by hand. Your concern about accuracy is the same that pro's using software costing many thousands of dollars have. There is no way to be sure. For a fact, this year's IRS's original worksheet for computing the Capital Gains Tax contained an error that affected some filers. Since some software providers like TT followed the IRS worksheet, some of its filers were affected. The IRS didn't catch or fix the error until after the 4/15 filing deadline. During my career I have seen IRS notices saying taxpayers returns were wrong to be in error. So you see even the IRS gets it wrong. At least TT offers to pay penalties and interest if its computations are wrong.

Re: Program Updates

elbara — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 23:09:53 GMT

Just to let you know, Turbotax now is showing updates for 8/14/2019, but still no details. Exasperating.

Re: Program Updates

Constantins — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 01:14:45 GMT

It is very surprising . Until today, I did not have troubles to read about update content. I tried to see the 8/14/2019 updates and I could not. I got to a generic page.

Regarding 8/14/2019 update TT mentions that is critical. And I cannot see it. Very strange.

Maybe some people at Intuit are paid from competition to do a bad job. Or this is the beginning of the end.

I will regret if so.

Re: Program Updates

Constantins — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 01:21:16 GMT

Ha, I was updated to level 3. Is this a joke?

Re: Program Updates

VolvoGirl — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 02:59:37 GMT

Level 3? What's that? Are you talking about the Turbo Tax versions? There is the Free Edition, Deluxe, Premier and the Self Employed version.

Re: Program Updates

mesquitebean — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 04:37:21 GMT

I think the user may be referring to achieving "Level 3" status for his profile in this user forum.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/339142

Re: Program Updates

NebularNovice — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 21:30:44 GMT

That link covers updates through May 24. We are way past that with at least three subsequent updates, two of them labeled critical. Do we have any way of knowing what was changed?

My tax changed. I had to track it down to a change in the Schedule D Tax Worksheet.

Re: Program Updates

DoninGA — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 21:39:00 GMT

@NebularNovice The Release Notes support FAQ was originally posted on May 24. There have been multiple updates since then. The last being on September 10 for Release 47

Re: Program Updates

NebularNovice — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 22:03:07 GMT

Thanks for the info. I naively used the link posted in a reply above. That reports updates through May 24. I also searched for "Release Notes support FAQ," No help.

Where is the updated FAQ?

Re: Program Updates

DoninGA — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 22:05:12 GMT

Here is the support FAQ - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/using-turbotax/help/turbotax-release-notes-for-windows-personal-tax-software/01/26799

Re: Program Updates

NebularNovice — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 22:19:55 GMT

Thanks. My apologies for not reading more carefully. (There is a later release, but I assume they will get to that soon.)

The change to the Schedule D Tax Worksheet could have simply been incorporating an IRS change in their Schedule D instructions. It is not mentioned in the release notes.

Re: Program Updates

davesontimeevery — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 22:50:47 GMT

I'm new to this forum, so I'm not sure if this is the right place to post my question, although my question relates to updates.

Now that I've read the replies on this thread, perhaps I can answer this myself. The answer being that TT is running way behind in having working, up-to-date links to the update information.

So, here's my story. I started TT today and was prompted to have TT updated. I did. When the updating was done, the window said the updates were released on 9/25/2019. I too clicked the link to find out details about the change. The link take me to https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/home/misc/03/en-us. I found a thread that linked me to the updates https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3169946-turbotax-2018-release-notes-for-windows-personal-tax-software

So, as you can see, the page starts by saying the latest update is dated September 10.

I've included the update window that says my update was released 9/25/2019 so you can see what threw me off. It's unnerving to think that I've downloaded a suspicious update. This is a piece of software that we all have to put a lot of trust into. But this is what it is?

Re: Program Updates

DoninGA — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 23:41:50 GMT

TurboTax updated the 2018 software on 09/25 to Release 48. That release has not been reflected in the support FAQ at this time.

Re: Program Updates

Critter — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 15:56:26 GMT

Almost all updates to the program after April have to do with "housekeeping or technical issues" and do not affect the returns themselves ... however as a precaution you should :

1) shut off automatic updates once you have filed the return

2) always save a copy of the return and add the current date to the name file ... so if you have to ever return to a prior version you can .... for example JohnSmithReturnAsOf..10/6/19 or JaneDoeReturn.as.filed. 4/15/19 ...ALSO keep a copy of the .taxfile & PDF on a separate storage medium like a thumb drive in case your computer dies

3) only update the program when step 2 is complete

Re: Program Updates

NebularNovice — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 18:11:40 GMT

Now you tell us. <g>

I did all of those except # 1. I do have copies of the filed .tax2018 and pdfs produced at the time of filing.

I did not turn off automatic updates. So one of the recent updates (not sure which since the relevant change is not reported in the notes) changed the return so it reports a different tax bill. The interesting thing is the program change which affected our return was apparently a correction of an IRS error in one of their worksheets.

If automatic updates were turned off, I would not know about this correction. I am not sure whether it is a good idea to turn automatic updates off. The update could be a correction of an IRS error or Turbo Tax error. I might well want to know about either. Maybe the only way to protect against this is to keep a copy of the program as it existed at the time of filing - in addition to the taxfile and pdfs.

Re: Program Updates

OnlineSucks — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 00:43:02 GMT

Turbo tax used to have excellent support. Not I cannot access the program because it needs to be updated. However, the update won't launch. I am doing work on 2 fast applications and dead in the water. Scholarship and college applications cannot be processed now because were waiting to complete the fast form. Turbo Tax has become an impediment.

Re: Program Updates

mesquitebean — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 01:50:51 GMT

@OnlineSucks

This is mainly a user community forum, not a direct route to Customer Support (we can tell you how to phone them if necessary).

You're posting in the middle of a cluttered old thread with at least 5 other users, so it might get confusing here. Usually it's best to start one's own new thread to keep things straight and attention is focused on your issue.

I assume you are using installed desktop software (CD/download) since you mentioned an "update". However, since the word "online" is in your screen name, that makes it a bit confusing as to which product you are using.

You'll need to explain more so folks will understand what you are doing and experiencing. Please describe what you mean by "the update won't launch." When you start your TurboTax software, does it tell you an update is available, and when you click to download and install the update, nothing happens?

Also, what desktop software and OS are you using--TurboTax for Windows PC, or TurboTax for Mac?