When did TurboTax become the worst tax filing software?

[Nobody Special]

2024 Desktop version

Between the capital gains nonsense preventing people from filing EVEN IF they have no gains to report and the inability to refile (last estimate March17 but who knows) if you notice a mistake after filing, this year's offering from Intuit will go down as the poorest release in their history.

I understand that the capital gains issue is somehow intertwined with the government incompetence issue for people reporting gains, but if you aren't reporting any gains, the program should auto by-pass the requirement for the form. Simple programming fix but ignored.

My advice is before filing online to go to Edit>Forms>T567>Clear Current Form and then Close Unused Forms....and then do the same for Schedule 3.....Then file.

I have used TurboTax since its inception and I have never seen a poorer year for clean programming and update corrective services than 2024. One has to worry about mistakes in the background that aren't noticeable until the government comes knocking later.

Pretty sure its run, for me at least, has come to an end.

I will source a new software starting next year.

[Nobody Special]

*sorry correction...that should read T657

[eastern-skier]

IN PRAISE OF TURBOTAX.

I have been maintaining a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which tries to predict in late December how TurboTax will calculate my income tax for April. Each column (year since 1982) on my spreadsheet has over 700 cells filled with equations and data. As a tax payer, my profile is relatively simple compared to people who operate a small business.

I am blown away by the complexity of the TurboTax software which creates a one size fits all product.

I have been a liaison in the past between Rev Quebec and TurboTax to deal with a hidden programming bug about post retirement employer benefits. I found the high level employees at TurboTax in Calgary to be very responsive and motivated.

To me, TurboTax is one of the best software products that I have ever seen, coming from a retired programmer who used to deal with robotic software containing millions of lines of code. 

[Nobody Special]

"I have been a liaison in the past between Rev Quebec and TurboTax to deal with a hidden programming bug about post retirement employer benefits. I found the high level employees at TurboTax in Calgary to be very responsive and motivated."

yeah....so no bias there.

====

True, over the years Turbo Tax was a program you could always have confidence in using. However the last 2-3 years have been bug riddled.

Perhaps your statement;    "I am blown away by the complexity of the TurboTax software which creates a one size fits all product."

....is an indicator of the inherent issue. It's gotten too complex for its own good.

[eastern-skier]

@Nobody Special 

Of course I am biased, but I am not an employee or a beta tester, I have no skin in this game.

Given that the thousands of rules in the Income Tax Act have to be programmed into the software, TurboTax has to be an extremely complex piece of software.

Unlike you, I have experienced no bugs in the software in recent years, so it is hard for me to be disappointed with this product.

The CRA took until January 2025 to tell all the tax preparation software companies to undo all the capital gains related changes that they were ordered to do late last year.

I will be amazed if everyone is ready to resume Netfiling by the end of March.

Only after you follow through with a competitor's product will you know who is doing a better job.

Good luck with your future tax returns.

[gcamp54]

Are you saying that even if you don't have any capital gains to report you can't netfile your tax return yet?  I didn't see any warnings that popped up on my return, so how would I know if there's a problem?  Or did an error appear after netfiling? 

That being said, I can't file mine yet because there's a warning about my OAS amount reported being incorrect even though it's the same amount as on my tax slip.  Another bug that people noticed over a month ago that still needs to be fixed. 

Sigh . . .

[eastern-skier]

@gcamp54 

There is a list of about a dozen forms related to capital gains that have been locked at the request of the CRA.

Many of these forms auto fill as a consequence of historic data imported from your 2023 TurboTax declaration in your CARRY FWD form.

As I have stated elsewhere in this forum,  the capital gains calculations are activated by something as trivial as declaring bank interest in 2024 or in a previous  year's TurboTax session.

Once a T936 form gets activated, it hangs around year after year. The CRA has locked this form since January.

In mode EasyStep, when it comes time to print or save the declaration (before Netfiling), that is when a pop-up error message occurs which states that one or more forms are locked.

Discovering which form is locked requires using the option for Individual Forms to save each form one by one, until you hit the one causing your problem. Start by selecting a group of forms and then work your way down.

If you Netfiled, and you got an error about your OAS amount in TurboTax being incorrect, then in your situation, I would go into Forms mode and go inspect my T4(OAS) slip and line 11300 on my T1 form. I would also log into MyAccount on the CRA website and download a copy of the T4(OAS) slip submitted to the CRA by Services Canada, in order to compare both sides.

[Nobody Special]

Unfortunately like I said, bug ridden.

[Nobody Special]

"If you Netfiled, and you got an error about your OAS amount in TurboTax being incorrect, then in your situation, I would go into Forms mode and go inspect my T4(OAS) slip and line 11300 on my T1 form. I would also log into MyAccount on the CRA website and download a copy of the T4(OAS) slip submitted to the CRA by Services Canada, in order to compare both sides."

There's the rub.

Unless the filer has chosen the auto-fill option and then tried to change the input, there is no way for the program to even know that the amount is wrong.

And there is no use in comparing what was mailed to what is on CRA's site as, once again the program has no way to compare and determine an error.

It is another documented bug.

[Nobody Special]

"The CRA took until January 2025 to tell all the tax preparation software companies to undo all the capital gains related changes that they were ordered to do late last year."

Again, the issue with capital gains isn't the issue.

The issue is EVEN IF you aren't claiming/reporting capital gains it prevents people from filing.

That is an easy programming fix to close out all non-used forms before filing. It should be a standard function.