Turbotax guarantees are worthless

[Tax4fp]

I ,and several others, have noted errors with Form 2210 calculation of underpayment penalty in 2021 version that results in Turbotax saying a penalty is due when it really isn't.  Turbotax advertises their results are 100% accurate, but actually only cover cases where the program result is too low and the IRS or state sends a notice of payment due and/or you run the same data through other tax preparation software product and come up with a lower result (and have to pay for the other product to get a correct result).  They need to fix their screwed up software when errors are found by users like those in the Community and make it easier for the Community to identify and track the correction of errors with their software so those of us that paid for the product actually get something that provides accurate results.

[Tax4fp]

TT update on 3/3/22 did not fix any of the errors in Form 2210.  Still not calculating line 14 (a)-(c) on Form 2210AI correctly and still using the wrong dates in step by step for annualizing withholding.  2021 TT Form 22210  is a piece of junk that TT isn't making any effort to fix and TT 100% accuracy guarantee isn't worth anything so they don't even try.

[TiffanyL]

Our understanding is that this issue has been resolved, If you are still experiencing issues with it not calculating correctly, please reach out to TurboTax customer support for assistance.

@Tax4fp

[Tax4fp]

@TiffanyL 

Problem is not fixed and trying to get TT support to investigate has proven worthless for me and others.  Note that another employee tax expert (BillM223) in another thread confirmed that there was in fact a problem with line 14 calculation, so please get your stories straight and fix the problems with 2021 TT Form 2210AI.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/discussion/tt-2021-desktop-form-[product ke...

Also the  step by step for annulized withholding in underpayment section is also showing wrong dates as of latest update.  Perhaps, it you actually looked at the multiple comments in multiple threads discussing 2021 Form 2210 errors even after the latest update you would understand that problems have not been fixed, with the single exception that the error in transferring info from line 27 in Form 2210AI to line 10 (a) has been fixed.  Many people have gone ahead and filed even though Form 2210 is wrong, either because the errors weren't sufficient to create an under payment penalty or they just gave up and paid because they were tired of dealing with TT inability to fix the problems.

[Tax4fp]

@TiffanyL 

The problem with line 14 (a)-(c) is related to how TT Form 2210AI scales (QD) and doesn't scale (CG) factors to calculate the impact of CG/QD.  This is wrong and not consistent with IRS Pub 505 which would scale both.  I repeated my test cases with what should be the same scaled income in both columns (a) and (d) putting all of the scaled CG/QD for column (a) in one or the other categories.  If all the CG/QD was entered as CG, 14 (a) was about 20% higher than 14 (d), whereas if all of CG/QD was input as QD, the results for 14 (a) and 14 (d) matched.  In my original test, the CG and QD were about equal which gave a result that where 14 (a) was only 10% higher than 14 (d).  Bottom line, TT lack of scaling for CG in calculating 14 (a)-(c) is wrong and not consistent with IRS Form 505, worksheet 2-8 requirements which show both are to be scaled.  Fix your program TT.

[Tax4fp]

@TiffanyL 

Please take the time to actually look at the requirements in Pub 505 worksheet 2-8 for calculating annualized income in Form 2210AI. The inputs for CG in TT underpayment section specify that the cumulative CG up to that period be entered, just like the cumulative total income and the cumulative QD.  The IRS requirement is that each of these cumulative values be scaled by the factor for that cumulative period in order to calculate the annulized tax for that period.  Since TT doesn't properly scale the cumulative CG in each for the first three periods, the numbers in lines 14 (a)-(c) are higher than what they should be if the IRS requirements were properly followed.  Please have someone in TT fix this scaling error ASAP.

My point in starting this thread was that TT 100% guarantee doesn't cover TT errors like this where TT incorrectly tells customer that they owe more than they actually do because TT doesn't properly implement the IRS requirements.  In my case TT said I owed a penalty of $132 due to multiple TT errors in Form 2210.  This is 3x what I paid for TT, so even if I got a refund for my purchase price, I would still have been out $ that I shouldn't have owed, all because of TT screwups with Form 2210 calculations. If it wasn't for my own digging and the others in this forum who identified and tracked down TT errors, TT wouldn't even know about the screwups.  Anyone who trusts TT and their worthless guarantees is a fool.

[Tax4fp]

@TiffanyL 

I wondered if the problems with line 14 in 2021 Form 2210AI were only occurring this year or had been in TT in previous years.   I had a similar large LT CG in March 2018 which had been entered as CG in the first period  of 2018 Form 2210 and used  my 2018 version of TT to check whether entering my total CG/QD in the QD line and zero in the CG line for the first period changed 14 (a) from the normal method where LT gain was entered as CG input and actual QD was entered as QD input.   Both results using 2018 TT were the same showing that TT in the past was correctly scaling both CG and QD in calculating Form 2210AI line 14 as it should be per IRS Pub 505.  The incorrect calculation in 2021 TT Form 2210AI appears to be a new issue rather than a long term one so TT programmers should know how to do it correctly in 2021 if they just match the programming from those earlier years.  We shouldn't have to result to tweaking the input data in 2021 just to get 2021 TT to correctly calculate underpayment penalty.

[Tax4fp]

@TiffanyL   Another TT screwup that I had to help other TT users get around that wouldn't be covered by TT worthless accuracy guarantee.

Since latest update of TT on 3/11/22 still doesn't fix any of the issues with Forms 2210 and 2210AI, TT may never fix the remaining problems including the issue with line 11 not crediting prior year refund as a tax payment.  In lieu of including 2020 refund as a tax payment credited to 2021 tax return, just include the amount of 2020 refund as a fifth estimated tax payment with the paid date being the date that your 2020 return was filed and/or accepted by IRS.  Looking at the tax payment worksheet in TT, this would result in the same total of estimated tax payments and refund credits for the year and should result in TT increasing line 11 by the amount of the 2020 refund  (via the fifth estimated payment tweak) in the appropriate period when the 2020 return was filed which should eliminate the bogus underpayment penalty due to TT error on this line.

[Tax4fp]

@TiffanyL 

Update on 4/20/2022 finally fixed the tax calculation error in Form 2210AI line 14 (a)-(c) where LTCG was not being scaled each period as IRS required for these calculations.  Too late to help anyone who filed on or before due date for 2021 federal taxes.