How can I submit a suggestion for improving Turbo Tax?

[jckbrand]

Simple, standard deduction file.  Husband deceased this last year.  Filled in all fields, paid, submitted info for direct deposit, driver's license info...program sent me back to return and acted like I was still in middle of entering data for return.  Called your representative...she walked me thru it, had me change return to put my name first and my husband's secondary.  Verified the IRS' AGI for prior year, it was correct, and efiled taxes.  Within no time got a rejection.  Stated AGI was incorrect; double checked it with printed return and AGI was correct.  The only reason I can figure they rejected it was because we put my name in primary position and husband's in secondary.  Now I have to mail.  I could have saved the $80 and filed the forms myself.  Just a waste of money.

[just1Rick]

Here's one that would be great, at least for me.  After filing taxes, give the option to answer a few questions, and then have the software generate W-4 forms for each employer to adjust withholding. 

The only question I can think of is would you like to:

A) Withhold enough to nearly guarantee that you get a refund for both federal and state.

B) Withhold enough that you are likely to get a refund for both federal and state.

C) Aim for federal and state to be about even (i.e. a $500 refund in one and a $500 bill in the other).

D) Aim for no refund in either state or federal, but minimize the amount due beyond that.

E) Aim for the smallest legal withholding (no penalty), but understand that you're going to be paying a tax bill.

I think that Turbotax would be picking numbers than most of us.  For year 2, maybe try to make it smart enough to handle job changes.  For year 3, add tax bill forecasting based on everything Turbotax knows about us.  I wouldn't mind this being a small upgrade cost.

Thanks,

Rick

[KrisD15]

TurboTax does have a W-4 calculator, but it is not linked to your tax return at this time:

W-4 calculator

[Tomnjerry]

Here is a suggestion and it is one of my pet peeves. I use Turbo tax on my computer, not the online version. I do mine and my children and my sisters returns. When I go to save them turbo tax wants to save it by my last name and first initial.  it looks like this      2019 Trump D Form 1040 Individual Tax Return.tax2019.  I cant tell if it is Donald or David or Denice.

Unfortunately the initial Does not help because too many on us have the same initials. Even if I save it with my first name, When I open it next year, it starts all over with just the initial. If they would save complete names to begin with it  would go so much smoother. It appears I saved my 2019 return over my sisters return last year so I do not have a copy of hers  on my computer and had to reenter all the information all over again.  I am just thankful I did not override my return, it is more complicated and I would not have been happy to lose it.

Please use the full name in the future.

[VolvoGirl]

Yes that is a problem when saving returns.  You need to first go to FILE - SAVE AS and give the return a unique name you can tell apart.  You don't have to use or accept the name Turbo Tax gives it.  I save all my returns with different names.  

[SusanY1]

Thank you for this suggestion.  I understand what you mean, as many of the members of my family share the same first initial as well!

I will pass this along to the folks who make these types of decisions.

Thank you for using TurboTax for your family's tax preparation needs!

@Tomnjerry

[Frank43]

I have been using TurboTax for many years and really find the software useful.  However, this year I had a lot of trouble when the software asked that I update it.  Numerous times the software locked in the middle of the update and I had to reboot my PC, restart the software and complete the process.  This has not happened in the past; however, if this continues to occur, I will unfortunately have to move to another tax software.  I really hope someone in turbotax looks into this.  If other people are also experiencing this problem, perhaps they can reply and then maybe I am not the only person experiencing this problem.

[steve221221]

Education:  Form 1098-T

I just spent an hour gathering cost info, expenses, books, supplies, room/board, etc. etc. THEN TTax tells me "You can't claim an education tax break" because somebody else can claim you as a dependent on their return.

You already knew that before I started entering all that info!

[DaveF1006]

if you indicate that you can be claimed by someone else,in your return, you will not be able to claim an education expense.  Your parents can because you are their dependent. The return does not have the ability to inform you of this prior to entering these expenses.

[steve221221]

I think it does.  One of the first questions I answered was "Can you be claimed as a dependent",  "WILL you be claimed as a dependent"  (Yes to both)

[ThomasM125]

Sometimes the information from your form 1098-T is needed on your tax return even if you are claimed as someone else's dependent. For instance, if your scholarship income, reported in box 5 on your form 1098-T is more than your tuition, reported in box 1, the excess can be taxable to you.

Also, if you withdraw funds from an education savings account, you need to know what your tuition was to determine if any of those distributions are taxable.

So, there are reasons for entering the form 1098-T even if you don't qualify for an education credit.

[steve221221]

Makes sense.  Thanks.

[Papa_Baer1]

I too would like to provide feedback.

In my experience, TurboTax, which I've been using for years, is slowly deteriorating.

They seem to be losing sight of the fundamentals, and also seem to be slowly distancing themselves from real user feedback - a really bad idea for a software project.

I have two particular points I'd like to make at this time:

1) The file-handling is nightmarish.  As a specific example, double-click on a Word doc file in Windows - What happens?  Word opens THAT file.  Not Turbo tax.  I did exactly this with a TT file I wanted to open (btw - TT seems insistent on leaving a temp file open as well --- with ~ as the 1st character --- also terrible...) and it still presented me with the screen showing the previous work to open.  And this screen has NO REFERENCE to path in it - so you have no idea what clicking on it will do.  I mistakenly clicked on it - only to find out after working in the software for a while and saving - that TT had opened a completely different file than the one I originally double-clicked on.  This is not rocket science.  When I double-click on a file in an OS, I want THAT file to open. Period.

2) I had a question in the TT software, this year, with ZERO explanation, and it was a Yes/No kind of question.  I had no way out, and no explanation.  Last time I checked, the reason we buy tax software is so that these topics, ESPECIALLY the complicated ones, get EXPLAINED!  What in the world is going on here?  If the answer is - "ask the community" - then why do we need the tax software?  Yes, it helps, but the reason we're willing to spend money on it is that it is supposed to make the process easier.  Googling and spending hours asking questions and getting attitudinal answers in forums is not what we're after...

thanks for hearing me out...  🙂

Papa Bear

[DaraLO]

You can submit feedback using the TurboTax Contact Form:  https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact/

[jcvirstaxes]

For several years now, using the CD TurboTax (not the online), the 1040ES payment vouchers, as they print, they do NOT line up with the IRS provided window envelopes, the address in the voucher does not show thru the window.   It has been wrong for 2 or 3 years, when will you fix this already??!!!