I'm super frustrated right now.
I have self employed income and my wife does not. I do a joint file when I do our taxes because it's quick and relatively painless.
However, when I went to file, TT wants to charge me twice for upgraded returns. I have no problem paying for mine as I do have self employment income. However, it makes zero sense to be paying another 60$ for my wife return when she does NOT have self employment income.
I called the help line and all they told me was "Oh sorry, TT doesn't have that option to only pay for one." I was floored by this, but she recommended filing singly.
However, when I did that, bringing in the info from last years returns made me file jointly again.
To say that I'm annoyed is putting it mildly.
If you are preparing your returns together with a spouse, then both returns are in the same file, so both will be using the same version of TurboTax. So, even if only one of you is self-employed, you'll both be using the self-employed version, and will both be charged the same.
If you don't want to use the same version as your spouse, you can prepare your returns separately. A few pages in, TurboTax will ask if you only want to transfer info from both spouses or only one.
So, I'm assuming that this means I need to redo both sets of taxes from scratch?
Yes, you do have to start from the beginning if you decide to prepare the returns separately.
I am self employed but my wife is not. I am charged both returns as self employed. Not fair.
i will not use turbotax again.
@firewhirl If you are preparing your returns together with a spouse, then both returns are in the same file, so both will be using the same version of TurboTax. So, even if only one of you is self-employed, you'll both be using the self-employed version, and will both be charged the same.
If you don't want to use the same version as your spouse, you can prepare your returns separately. A few pages in, TurboTax will ask if you only want to transfer info from both spouses or only one.