I still haven't filed! TT won't let me enter my deductions. And the Community site keeps telling me that Authentication Failed when I've tried to post. Can anyone help?

[Bill N]

I’d been worn out from dealing with medical issues, and just couldn’t muster enough energy to file taxes. So, on the last day, I took a deep breath and powered down. I’m proud to say that I was on schedule to file electronically during the 11th hour. However, that’s when Turbo Tax failed to deliver for the first time in over 20 years. I’m using TT Home & Business.

I was looking at the list of Personal Deductions in their categories. I only needed three: Mortgage, Car registration, and Medical. Here’s what happened:

I clicked on the Update button for the mortgage pages, and completed them without incident.

I returned to the Deductions list and clicked on Update button for car registration. I was taken to a blank white page with no functionality. After about four attempts, the page wasn’t blank. There was a large text box at the top with a red border. In tiny font it said, “Some error occurred.” So I returned to the list to see if the Medical category would work.

The good news is that it did work. It allowed me to answer the first three questions before going to a blank white screen. I had no chance to enter anything after that.

I’ve closed the program and reopened it. I’ve shut down the computer and restarted it. On the 16th, I returned to the store where I bought Turbo Tax and got a replacement CD. It did the same thing.

The only strange thing I saw was a pop-up from Windows 7 Home Premium telling me that Turbo Tax didn’t like my choice of color schemes, so TT changed it from Windows Aero to Basic.

I’m a week late now because, after the crash, I had to start getting ready to prepare a presentation for Saturday. Now that it’s over, and I took Sunday to relax, it’s back to the grind.

Does anybody know what has happened, and what I should do?

Thank you In advance.

Bill N.

[SteamTrain]

Here's the blank screen solution...but I have no idea why it happens part-way thru your tax prep ...unless there was maybe a Windows update part way thru your tax preparations that maybe messed things up..

.... this is the likely issue with anyone with a blank page during the running of Desktop TTX software on a Windows computer.

.......TTX should only be installed and run as an Administrator..not in some guest account without administrator privileges...but it's hard to know each person's exact setup.   

(Have seen a few people who  are sure they installed the program as an Administrator...but the following had to be done anyhow and fixed it)

________________

Exit TurboTax....then:

 1)  right click TurboTax 2018 icon

2)  Select  … Properties

3)  Select the  Compatibility tab

4) In the "Settings" box … check the box to "Run this program as an administrator" 

_________________

This has fixed the problem for a number of users now.

[Bill N]

Congratulations, SteamTrain. You’ve done it again!

I’m completely comfortable with computers and software. In fact, I’ve been using TT for over 20 years. But I didn’t know that Turbo Tax will NOT do my taxes unless I check the box that says “Run as Administrator.” I don’t recall ever encountering a statement alerting me to that (known) outcome.

How many people like me have to depend on kind, caring, helpful people like you to volunteer their knowledge? I think it puts you in the position of replacing Intuit employees for the benefit of Intuit managers and their budgets. If the software doesn't work, Intuit should be held accountable.

Then, after overcoming the hurdle that you helped me with, I tried to enter my numbers for Medical deductions. The first two pages – Prescriptions and Doctors – would not let me enter anything! It showed “$0” and nothing would change it. I couldn’t even delete it. In my frustration, I double-clicked in the box, and was totally startled when a pop-up window appeared with a worksheet. How was I supposed to divine such actions? I feel like I need to become psychic every tax season.

In the meantime, I think Turbo Tax managers should hire people like SteamTrain so they don’t have to labor as volunteers for Intuit’s benefit.

I didn’t realize I was taking a chance in using Turbo Tax this year; I’d always thought of it as a sure thing. But now that I know there’s a risk involved, I’m not likely to risk another experience like this next year. This risk proved costly.

Thank you again, SteamTrain.

Bill N

[SteamTrain]

Looks like you've hit all the major bugs now (unless you have Illinois or Hawaii to file)...the $0 one is a bug I've been poking at the moderators about for a couple months now...maybe that one will get fixed by next year.

Here's what I've been telling folks hitting the "$0" bug in the desktop software, and the several ways around it...

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/7080616">https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/7080616</a>