Vast differences between Turbo Tax Premier Online and Turbo Tax Premier Download

[scarfinv]

I was helping my parents do their taxes using Turbo Tax Premier Online, and then had a sticker shock when he was going to pay.

I have Turbo Tax Premier Download and had 9 unused returns, so we decided to do my parents taxes via my Download instead.

I was expecting the same results! There were some small differences (bugs) with the online version (T3 box 26 income NOT split.  Full amount on both returns, even though T3 was to be split 50%).  This was correctly split in the download version.

However, the pension splitting optimizer was vastly different between the two editions.  Online it said the optimal split was $13,718.  In the download version the split was $5,361.34.   As far as I can tell, all other information has been entered the same across both versions of TurboTax.

TurboTax online calculated a refund of about $3500.   Download calculated a refund of about $3000.

Am I missing something?

[TurboTaxBrenda]

Unfortunately, as we can't view your return, we do not know why a difference or if something was missed.

You can contact our phone support to see if they can assist you or escalate your issue.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[scarfinv · Accepted solution]

I was able to resolve the differences!

The underlying problem is with the Charitable Donations Optimizer.   Online it split the donations by person automatically, and didn't carry any amounts forward to next year. 

The download version, the optimizer makes me choose one person or the other to claim all the donations.  And DOESN'T advise me of a value that I should perhaps carry forward. 

So then I used the EasyStep option in the desktop version, where it lets me pick an amount to claim on the second person (with the balance going to the first person).  So I used the amount that the Online version came up with.   

Once I did that, the Pension Optimizer on the desktop version then came up with the same split amount as the online version.  Then causing the refund amounts to be identical in both versions.

It looks like the charitable donation optimizer leaves a lot to be desired in the desktop version.

However, the online version has problems with charitable donations as well.  I tried claiming all the donations on one person, and if physically moved all those donations to the first person.   But when editing the donation, it doesn't give me an option to move it to the second person.  So to change the split, I had to physically reenter half of the donations for the second person, and delete them from the first person.  What a pain!

[TurboTaxGinette]

Thank you for the update and the feedback. We truly appreciate it.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[SS007Fly]

Wow, amazing work.  It must have taken a long time to get through that.  

Stuart