Feedback: Just paid 338.35 in late fees after turbotax customer service gave me incorrect information. Will be finding out if a local CPA is less than 338.35.

[DoninGA]

Late fees are incurred if you filed a tax return after the due data and you had taxes owed.  Using TurboTax you have to either initiate the transmission of the tax return for e-filing or print and mail the tax return.

For tax year 2018 any taxes owed had to be paid on or before April 15, 2019.

[SweetieJean]

What incorrect info did the rep give you?  Some business returns were due on March 15 (not April 15).

[turtelly14]

It was all submitted 3 March and marked as "accepted". I was expecting money back from the federal and VA gov and owed the MD gov. Even though it said "accepted" it looked like MD hadn't been paid and I hadn't gotten any money back so I called turbotax a few weeks after filing and was told the MD taxes had been paid out of the return from the fed and VA returns. The amount was about the same but still seemed off, when I said this I was told everything was fine and not to worry, the rest had been used to pay turbotax. Turns out, turbotax took more out of my fed return than is stated in my billing details, VA has been trying to get a hold of me to sign a verification letter and MD charged me late fees since they were never paid. This time when I called I got a CPA and she was able to explain that turbotax doesn't pay the state and showed me the form where it said I needed to pay the state so I should have caught it there back in March (although it took her two times to remember where it was on the site and looking for it now to reference it I can't find it) but I still can't figure out why the first person I spoke with back in March clearly didn't know what they were talking about and makes me hesitant to use the program going forward since I can't trust their advice if I have a question and will just have to do all the work myself to figure out whats going on (in which case - why pay for this service?).

[Critter]

Turbotax has 2 kinds of help ... from a CPA/EA who have tax knowledge and program smarts  and the reg tech support which have program knowledge primarily but usually not much if any tax knowledge.  The state balance due can never ever be paid from the federal refund so any such info on that regard was in error of course the tech support should have told you to view the filing instruction pages to verify the situation. 

If you read the screens in the FILE tab the way to pay the state was clearly posted and if you had printed or viewed the filing instruction pages when you reviewed the ENTIRE return prior to filing you would have seen that same info ... sadly this is a DIY tool where the user is responsible to complete their own return by following the interview screens.  In the future read all the screens carefully so you don't make the same error again ... and this stands true no matter what DYI tax program  you use.