Issue upon paying state tax e-filing fee to turbotax. Hope my experience helps others

[EricC121]

People asked about seeing a blank screen upon turbotax software activation and I met this problem too. I use windows 10. Changing screen resolution solved this problem well (for details, please search blank activation screen). However, the same problem showed up when we needed to pay for the state e-filing fee $25 to TurboTax. I could see the payment window popped up, but I could not type in anything. I noticed that every time I typed in anything in blind, I will be able to see it upon the next change of the screen resolution. But I could not find a specific screen resolution under which that window can function normally. Therefore I just clicked the fill-in box and typed in blind, and then changed screen resolution to any other one to see it, and then moved to the next box. It was painful as I needed to type in contact information, billing address etc, and I needed to check all information was correctly typed in. I changed screen resolution for >20 times for the entire process. It finally went through. I hope turbotax can fix this bug next year. It is a very very painful experience, particularly when I needed to make any changes.

[KathrynG3]

Thank you for letting us know. Here is another article with other troubleshooting tips for your future reference: Troubleshoot blank screens, missing buttons, or missing images.

Also, it is important that your browser is up to date and your device meets minimum system requirements.

[EricC121]

Thanks for your reply. In order to use turbotax, I bought a new computer since all existing computers at home were under windows 7 and turbotax even did not allow installation on windows 7. This is a brand new computer with windows 10 and I checked the trouble shootings listed in the link were not the case. I think it is a bug by turbotax software this year. Anyway, I already went through this step and just hope next year turbotax software can improve in this aspect.

[cd1231 · Accepted solution]

In Windows 10, the fix for the "hung" pop-up window for payment of state e-file charges is to go to Settings for display resolution and make sure it is at 100%.  Many displays default to 125% or 150%.  Restart TurboTax after you change the display to 100%.  Then the "continue" button will work on the payment pop-up from the state e-file payment screen.  Clicking on that will generate a pop-up to log into your Intuit account and pay. 

There is a lot of bad information online about clearing cache and trying other browsers to overcome this problem with the state e-file payment pop-up.  That makes no difference if you are running the program as a standalone download on your machine.  Others suggest running TT as administrator (which you probably already are if you are the only user on your machine) and turning off your firewall temporarily. Neither of these worked for me. I can see that the software TT is using to generate the pop-up window was not being blocked by my firewall.  

Similarly, for installation of the standalone TT program (where the screen for entering license information is blank), switch to the lowest resolution (600x800). Then you will be able to see the content of that screen.  

 It is clear many taxpayers have spent considerable hours trying to resolve both of these issues. Hope programmers fix these bugs soon.

[EricC121]

Thanks so much. That makes lots of sense. During the >20 times when I switched resolution, I did not change the display percentage, and the default resolution is 125% and I believe changing this would work.

[Missie 1093]

I had the same issue. When trying to pay the state filing fee , my pop-up box went blank. When I finally got an operator on customer service she suggested maximizing my screen resolution to 100%. It already was at 100%.

Talking with her, I figured out the problem - I had my (Nord) VPN on ! Even though it was connected to a local server , it was still blocking the TurboTax function here. I disconnected the VPN and the rest of my session sailed through. Just waiting for my confirmation emails & my $$$$.

[pktcampbell]

Thank you so much for the info on the screen resolution.  I spent literally hours and talked to two TurboTax techs and could not resolve the issue.  I was set at 125%.  Set it to 100% and everything worked fine.  Appreciate your help.  Maybe TurboTax reps should have this info.

[jwrudge]

• Doesn't work. I run windows 11. Reset to 100%. Continue button was smaller but still didn't take me to the intuit online store to purchase state e-file.

[CarissaM]

If you are still having this issue, please follow the instructions here to contact us by phone so we can better assist you. @jwrudge