I wanted to post a PSA in case this helps anyone.
I just finished filing my taxes with TurboTax after a great deal of frustration. I filled everything out, double checked, and ran the Turbotax review function. Everything looked great and I proceeded to enter my payment information. I got to the screen that allows me to download the PDF of my return - and I did so, for my records. I looked at the PDF a final time - and discovered a mistake! Good thing I checked! No problem, I'll just fix the mistake before I file.
I went back to Tax Home and edited the relevant sections, but I did not see my return amount change. The 1040 form did not change.
I spent about 4 hours, cumulatively, on several calls with three different agents (All very helpful! No complaints there.) We tried deleting forms, re-entering forms, and quadruple-checked my information. Nothing affected the needed changes to my 1040. We even tried to wipe the entire tax form and start completely over -
but TurboTax does not allow you to start over once you've entered payment information.
We came to the following conclusion: Once I passed the Payment screen, Turbotax locks in certain forms and doesn't allow them to be deleted or altered. You can re-enter information all you want, but those forms are immutable. I couldn't go back, I couldn't start over, and I couldn't very well submit a bad tax return.
The solution was ultimately to create a brand new account and start from scratch. This worked fine, and I was able to avoid my first mistake, and filed successfully.
I promised the TurboTax support crew that I would post here so this issue is documented. Learn from my mistake: Do not enter your payment info until you are 100% certain that the return is correct! You cannot review the PDF you download at the end and go back to fix mistakes.
I hope this helps someone.
