Can't e-file extension for free after paying almost $100 for "Premium"

[KrisK2]

You were lucky. I was also pushed to buy software - which I also purchased (though not that premier version) several times to buy on the online extension page. It also was almost prompting me to complete my return just to file. 
Finally just gave in went back to my desk top version, answered the two questions and am going to mail it.

-k 

[Jim C5]

Wait, to use "Easy Extension" I have to log in to my Intuit Account, and it STILL doesn't know who I am and that I have already paid for the program? When I've already entered and checked my Federal Return? WTF?

[valleycenter2015]

I also have Premier. You are right. I found a work around. I went online to Turbotax and chose the free version and did an extension just now.

[bhodge]

And to make matters worse, the only help in turbotax forces you to wade through a load of unhelpful responses

from people who obviously didn't read your message. 

The answer, I think, is to file an extension on irs direct pay, as someone else here already said. Then when you eventually file, you will tell TT that you filed extension. 

State probably the same. 

And yes TT is horrible in so many ways, and yet I pay for it every year. 

[CatinaT1]

Here is an FAQ: How to File an Extension

[SDSoCal]

Hi Paula,

As an employee, do you have ANY way to communicate with "the mother ship" of Intuit? Can you please tell them that the DESKTOP version of TT should also be able to e-file an extension for free?  It's not just me; other posters have also had the "WTF" reaction. May of us have already started our taxes on on our own computers, but when we try e-file an extension we are treated as if we are non-customers ("go to the online portal, where we will pretend we've never heard of you").

The  "can't e-file from desktop" problem is obviously fixable; if Intuit can e-file returns from desktops AND they can e-file extensions (for free) online; you can't tell me it's impossible combine those two tasks and e-file extensions for free from desktops.  The real question is it something that Intuit is willing to fix? 

[sg312]

I couldn't agree with you more. I am also  a premier desktop TT user. I ran into the problem that they were forcing me to go to paper. I live in NY and here you are required to file electronically. I couldn't e-file the federal but the state TT should allow you to e-file. Well, there was an option in "other forms" to e-file the state extension. but when I used that, it took me through the whole state return and went to filing the return. So I called for help. The federal extension, she told me had to be done on paper (after she took over my screen and saw there was no option to do otherwise - she was sure there was). but for the state she showed me where to click instead of "continue" to get to e-file the state extension. What happens is that link takes you to the free file site - but it had my information. Unfortunately, for NY, there is more information needed and had to be filled out. but at least the link was there (hidden), and it was seamless. WELL - lo and behold when I finished the state extension it took me back to easy extension site and allowed me to e-file the federal. But, at that point, it did not have my amounts. since i already printed the extension, I had the amounts neatly in front of me. So, while it was inconvenient, I did get to e-file. There is no reason why paying customers should have to go through hoops to do this.

[sg312]

i put in a lengthy reply to a later post in this thread. but as far as pushing you to purchase, it does - but it also gives you the option to "decide later". It also says that to file an extension is "always" free. you have to ignore the sales pitch and choose to "decide later". You do get to filling out the extension at that point.

[PaulaM]

The EZ extension will have you log into the same account you have for your desktop program. 

Any product requests are of course too late currently so all are advised to use the online extension site. It's fast, and gets the job done if you need an extension. 

Federal Extension

[sg312]

Paula - you are correct that now it's too late for this year. BUT - this is not the first year of this issue. And, it seems that Intuit really doesn't  care!

[Accountannie]

@SDSoCal  Thank you for posting this frustration of not being able to efile extensions within the Desktop versions of the tax software, which has been a frustration for me as well for many years using their Desktop versions!! 

I understand that a free extension can be completed by going online. However, that is the point of our frustration, as we want to file a free extension from within the software that we purchased and not have to go through the extra steps of going online and re-entering information and it not being tied to our desktop version so that we can easily see that we did indeed efile an extension and received a confirmation when we go into our software or when we save our tax documents to pdf. I do save a copy of the extension and confirmation from the online free extension site, but it would be convenient to have it right in our purchased software for no extra cost!

The other frustration is that the desktop version lets us efile 5 family federal tax returns. However, if we need to extend all 5, then we need to go online to do it, BUT we can only efile one tax extension per online account. Therefore, to do the 5 extensions, we have to set up 5 different online accounts with different emails. For record keeping purposes, this is very cumbersome to keep track of which extensions are efiled with which online account, especially if I want the email confirmations to all come to me for tracking and recordkeeping purposes.

@SDSoCal  I couldn't agree with your comment more regarding: "The 'can't e-file from desktop' problem is obviously fixable; if Intuit can e-file returns from desktops AND they can e-file extensions (for free) online; you can't tell me it's impossible to combine those two tasks and e-file extensions for free from desktops."

Also time consuming from not being able to efile from within the software is having to take the time to research, "why can't I efile my extension from TurboTax desktop?" only to be disappointed to find out that there is no way possible, and we have to either go through the hassle and cost of paper filing the extensions, or continue researching to find out that there is a link to efile online and re-enter information.

Even in reading this thread and knowing exactly your point of your original post, it was frustrating that the answers provided ignored the point of the issue and answered that we have to paper file or go online, instead of a TurboTax rep bringing this issue up to the developers years ago, since this is a FAQ every tax year, and then this would have been a nonissue in the first place!!

TurboTax just wants to make things tedious so that many taxpayers end up going online and feel they have to purchase more products just to get a simple task done, because they don't have time otherwise to figure out how to quickly efile an extension for free.