complaint regarding federal estimated tax form for TY2026

[Paul K]

While working through the interview in the TurboTax Premier Desktop version to determine my estimated quarterly tax payments for 2026 prior to filing my TY2025 return, I needed to refer back to the pending return for figures to determine the estimated 2026 values by viewing several of the completed forms within TurboTax. (Of course, if working on this task *after* my return is filed, I merely need to open the saved PDF of my return, park it next to the worksheet window, and scroll through as needed, but I normally take care of estimated taxes before filing my current return.) After obtaining the value needed for each specific item being queried, I closed the form being viewed to return to the interview. I had to repeat this action at least a half-dozen times for the various data items I needed to enter. Each time I did this, TurboTax took me to the initial screen of the estimating process, and it was necessary to pass through every screen I had already completed to get back to where I left off. While none of the previously entered data was disturbed, it still seemed rather pointless to have to step through every previous screen for all the categories of income or deductions to come back to the current point of data entry. 

Instead, I recommend for future TurboTax editions one of these two suggestions for improvement: 1) After closing the form being viewed, take the user back to the screen being viewed when the View Form command was evoked, or perhaps better, 2) For the estimated tax screen being viewed, display any data for the current year already entered for the same item for which the estimated data is being requested, even if the value is "$0", similar to how the two-year comparison screens are handled; for example, "Enter 2026 estimated total Qualified Dividends: $_________. From your 2025 return, this amount is $10,125"

[TexiRican]

Agreed. Many times I like to or am forced to look at entries in the actual forms for different reasons. I wish we could see the form independently from the TT interview process, side-by-side. Right now it is an "either or" proposition, and then the inconvenience of it kicking you back to the beginning of the interview for that form is annoying.

[Paul K]

As the OP of the comment you responded to, I think you're on to something, which may be the easiest solution for Intuit's coders: How about an option in Forms or other tools such as Help to open a separate window to enable a side-by-side display, perhaps evoked with a right click on the function's button to bring up a context menu offering that choice?

I would like that even better, especially when one needs to go back and forth several times between the views such as the scenario I described. In my example, that could have easily saved me ten to fifteen minutes, and it was only the last one of four or five other instances I experienced the issue for this year's taxes. 

[DianeW777]

We at Intuit TurboTax want our users to be completely delighted with their experience using our products and services, and successful in their financial lives and businesses.

Once you file your return, as long as the settings to receive communication from Intuit don’t block it, you will see a pop-up message or receive an email with a survey asking you about your experience. We encourage you to leave your notes and comments there. “Voice of the Customer” notes and comments are read and acted upon. 

If you are using TurboTax Desktop, you can also leave feedback at the Final Steps tab.

@Paul K