Hi Diane,
Thank you for your excellent advice. I am a stubborn person, but Turbotax forced me to take your advice, if I wanted to E-file my return, which I successfully did yesterday. At first I proceeded with the number of the 2024 income I received from the installment sale, that was higher than the total sale price I originally reported. I thought Turbotax would let me file, since it continued to process my return, collecting all my personal information, charging me to file my state return, and going right up to where I was ready to file, but then it brought up this issue again. My choice at that point was either to change Form 6252 to make it acceptable to Turbotax or file it as is by mail. I then went to Forms and found Form 6252. I changed the sales price by adding the income I received the last year to the income I had received in all previous years. The form then adjusted all the numbers on the form to conform to this change, and the result was an increase in the taxable income on the form resulting in a couple of hundred dollars of additional tax. Turbotax also insisted I change an error in Form 5805 for Underpayment of Estimated Tax. I did not underpay the tax since i made payments in 2024 that were 110% of the total tax I paid in 2023, so under the Safe Harbor Rule, I owed no penalty for underpayment. I indicated this on the form, said I owed no penalty, asked the state (CA) to waive the penalty and/or calculate it for me. To my delight this form then disappeared from the end of my CA return. I then thought I had it made, all errors were corrected, and I could now file my returns, but when I pressed the transmit returns button, I got a message that said there was a failure of transmission and gave two reasons for this: 1) I had to update Turbotax online to proceed to file my returns and 2) There was no Federal return corresponding to my state return. Both of these reasons perplexed me, since I could not understand how I could update Turbotax in the middle of filing my return, and I was filing both my Federal and State returns together, so how could there not be a Federal return corresponding to my State return. My choice at this point was to resolve these problems or file my return by mail. I first went to the internet and could not figure out how to update Turbotax from the information there. I then found a phone number to contact Turbotax. I encountered an A1 voice that could not understand my problem. Following the advice of another Turbotax user I then repeated the phrase "talk to a representative" several times. The AI voice then said it needed some information to give the representative, starting with my name. I tried spelling my first name several times as clearly and slowly as I could, but the Ai voice invariably repeated back an incorrect spelling. Finally, the voice said it would connect me with a representative which it did. After going back and forth with the representative, I found that the simple solution to my problem was to go to the Turbotax name on the top of my Mac screen, at which point a drop down menu appeared that had a line corresponding to "update Turbotax" I clicked this and the computer successfully completed the update, at which time I pressed the transmit return button again and was ecstatic when my returns were finally successfully E-filed. The Turbotax representative was essential to my success and had commendable knowledge and patience. Please excuse this long winded description of my experience, but I think it might be helpful to other Turbotax users.
Turbotax is an excellent product, but I think it could improve the user's experience by making a few changes. First, If it detects an error as you are preparing your return, it should make clear that you will not be able to E-file the return unless you correct the error first, instead of letting you proceed almost to the point of transmitting the return, and then coming back to the issue. Second it should give more specific guidance as to how to resolve the error. For example with Form 6252 it said I could not put the figure for last years income in the line on the form requesting this information. This, however, was not the line that needed changing, since it was accurate. I could not report a number that was different from the amount that I actually received. However, as you astutely pointed out, I could revise other parts of the form i.e. the total sales price, to make it acceptable.
Similarly, Turbotax insisted that I fill in information on a line of the Underpayment of Estimated Tax form that should not have been attached to the return to begin with. Turbotax should be able to determine from information it has, if your payments of estimated taxes in 2024 were 110% of the taxes you paid in 2023, under the Safe Harbor Rule, there could be no underpayment penalty. Finally, before you give your personal information and fees prior to E-filing, Turbotax should indicate that it would not accept your return before you downloaded the latest update to Turbotax,
Thank you again for your persistence and advice, The opportunity to obtain advice through the community is an invaluable feature of Turbotax.
Best,
EMM42
