Stuck in loop on tuition tax breaks (NY state, Premier desktop)

[bobobonobo]

I've completed my Federal tax entry and review and am now working through my NY state return, when I've hit a loop that I cannot get out of. I'm using the desktop edition of Premier and have downloaded the latest update, but every time I relaunch I get placed right back in the middle of the loop, with no apparent way out.

We made eligible withdrawals from a 529 plan to pay for qualified K-12 tuition for our child, and received a 1099Q, so we entered that info on the Federal form: it recorded the withdrawal as income but it subsequently got zeroed out as an eligible deduction/expense. The software never explicitly asked if it was for college or K-12 tuition, only if it was for a qualified use, which it was.

Now, in the NY form, we're presented with a screen titled "Tax Breaks for College Tuition" that asks if our child was an undergrad in 2021. I answer 'No' and click continue, and am served a screen that says "This Student Doesn't Qualify for Tuition Tax Breaks". There is no question to answer, just a 'Back' and a 'Continue' button. When I click 'Continue', I am again served the previous screen ("Tax Breaks for College Tuition") asking about whether our child was an undergrad. And back and forth. Rinse and repeat.

If I click the 'Show Relevant Form' button at the bottom of the screen, it calls up the "College Tuition Qualified Expenses Optimization Worksheet", so I'm inferring that the software is assuming the 529 withdrawal was for college tuition even though there have been other eligible uses of 529 withdrawals for at least a couple years now.

This seems like a clear software glitch. Anyone else experience this or have any suggestions for getting unstuck from this loop?

[KrisD15]

On the Federal screens, after the 1099-Q is entered, select Done and on the next screen, the level of education the distribution was used for is asked. 

Please Edit/Update the 1099-Q on the Federal return.

Deductions & Credits

Education

ESA  and 529 qualified tuition programs (Form 1099-Q)

[bobobonobo]

Thank you very much for the reply, but this did not resolve the issue. I walked back through the 1099-Q details on the Federal level and everything was set correctly, including the education level as illustrated in your screenshot. I checked the Deductions & Credits on the Federal level as well and it too specifies elementary school and not college. I even deleted the 1099-Q data and re-entered it fresh.

But the NY filing keeps locking me into this loop by asking if child was an undergrad in 2021, and bouncing back and forth between two screens when I say no.

[Cynthiad66]

Sounds like you may indeed be caught in a computer loop.  Let's delete cookies, history and reboot.  We have not identified any programming issues on the NY education deduction so this could be just a computer hang-up.  

Cookies are small files that temporarily store data on your computer. We use them to personalize your experience so you see information you already entered and not items that are irrelevant or repetitive.

On rare occasions, they may make your browser think you already did something that you still need to do. To fix that, you'll need to delete (clear) the cookies from your browser.

Each browser has a slightly different method for deleting cookies. Choose the browser you're using:

• Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Safari
• Safari for iOS (mobile devices)

[bobobonobo]

As noted in my original post and the subject line, I am using the desktop version of Turbotax Premier, not the browser version. Cookies are irrelevant and would not resolve this issue.

[AmyC]

Let me get you to  switch to FORMS mode since you are stuck in a loop. See if you can type what is needed directly on the form. If not, you can right click and data source to an entry spot. 

If needed, you can right click and override. Either way, you need to go back to step-by-step and get the program to understand this entry is what you want. After going through the state again with the corrected information, go back to FORMS mode and cancel any overrides. The program should retain your desires from going through the program. An override will void the accuracy guarantee so it is important to get the program working without the override.

[bobobonobo]

Thank you for the suggestion, AmyC, but this did not work either. I switched into Forms mode and edited the corresponding worksheet directly, but as soon as I switched back to Step-by-Step mode, I was placed right back in the loop with no way out.

I want to document for the record here that I also called Turbotax phone support and was on with two agents for over an hour, but they were also unable to resolve this issue; they just had me running around in circles, always ending up in the same loop. At one point they said they found a solution online, but it turns out they were just reading this very post right here: I had to assure them that I am the person who posted, and none of the suggested actions worked.

They admitted defeat and told me I'd need to delete the State filing and start over. But I did that, and the loop sprang up again. I even tried deleting the State filing, deleting the 1098-Q entry on the Federal level, and restarting the state filing, but somehow the 1098-Q data reappeared.

The only way I was able to ultimately file my return was to start completely from scratch, on an entirely new return, and to not even enter the 1098-Q details this time. This cost me a lot of time and effort and I'm not happy that I had to leave out a valid form from my return just because Turbotax couldn't deal with it properly.

Terrible, terrible experience. My advice to anyone reading this thread is to steer clear of this product if you have anything other than a basic return to file. Support really dropped the ball on this: how can a company as big and rich as Intuit just say "we don't know" to a problem in their software like this, right in the middle of filing season. Truly shameful.

[NJres]

Was able to finally bypass this issue since none of the official suggestions worked for us too (and really didn't want to delete the whole return). Even though our children are not in undergraduate yet, I checked yes - put in their elementary school name for college, left college number blank and put $0 for tuition. This let us get past the loop to the next steps. Then we were able to go back in later and uncheck the box stating that they were in undergraduate. When the return was finalized there was no mention of them being in undergraduate.  

[tax94]

I ran into the same issue. Thanks NJres for your question, and eventual resolution. Agreed, none of the responses from Intuit were helpful.

[bobobonobo]

Thanks for weighing in, @NJres and @tax94 . When I was on the phone with Intuit agents, they swore that they'd never seen this bug before and I had to be the only one experiencing it. They also refused to escalate to their Dev team.

Now that we have confirmation that there were at least a few of us all impacted by the same issue (and likely many more, who just haven't posted here), I'm inclined to reach back out to Intuit and ask for some kind of partial refund. Their software defect cost all of us time and potentially money. Maybe if we all call in they'll escalate the issue and be more likely to address it.

[alymarie]

I am experiencing this exact problem in 2023! They clearly didn't address the issue. I'm using the work around mentioned in this thread. Very frustrating.

[bobobonobo]

That's so disappointing to hear, @alymarie . Thank you for posting your update. I'm glad that the workaround figured out last year still works, but it's kind of shocking that Intuit/Turbotax has had a full year to resolve this and they did not.

[Kobby1]

Thanks for posting this. Having the same issue and on the phone with Turbotax support. An hour in and they've never heard of this problem

[bobobonobo]

Well, the only way for it to be possible that "they've never heard of this problem" is if they completely ignore this forum. They tell users to post their issues here, and we have -- I posted a year ago and others weighed in to confirm -- and yet they've done absolutely nothing about it and then you call and they claim ignorance, saying you're the first one ever to report this.

Good luck to you, but at this point I've given up hope of them fixing it. Maybe it's just worth a letter to the CEO or an angry tweet at this point. They should be embarrassed, but they won't be.

[durbo_dax_dave]

I'm having the exact same problem doing my 2022 taxes, on MacOS using TurboTax download.

I'm a NYC resident, and I have 1099-Qs for my two kids who are in elementary school.