TurboTax 2012 Is Worthless

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY

First let me say that I have used TurboTax for over a decade and previously found it to be easy and accurate.  Of course we did not own a business or rental property and few investments.  But, it was certainly easier than the old days when you went to the post office for forms to do your own taxes.

So this year I confidently bought my TurboTax 2012 software at our local Costco and started entering the data last night.  I ran into problems right away.  First they were simple problems like not enough digits for Utah's state payee ID number.  I tried to enter the numbers ending with WTH, but the problem persisted.  But then things got worse.  The software starting asking me if I had taken pretax money from my IRA and put it into a Roth IRA.  "No," I responded to the computer screen, "I needed to use it to live off as we are currently unemployed."  The program seemed to be mixing up pre-tax and after tax revenue.  "How odd," I said to my self, but I continued on into the night.  By midnight I was really sweating and I had a pain in my chest as Turbo Tax increased my Utah tax to over $3000.  The final straw was when the program asked me to enter the amount of tax that I was going to get back from the state of California.  "Why are you asking me?" I said to the computer screen, "That's why I have you.  I haven't even done my California return yet!"

A quick check on Google gave me a sick feeling in my stomach.  I saw dozens of people with the same problems as I was having with TurboTax 2012.  They were trying to help each other with advice on how to fix the same problems by entering the data a special way or by deleting and starting over.

I turned off the computer and went to bed.

The next day after I got home from work, I started off fresh again.  "So far so good," I admitted as I worked my way through a confusing Utah state presentation.  But quickly I realized that this certainly wasn't as easy as I had remembered from years past.  More pretax/after tax mix up and more missing ID numbers.  I was then told that I could not E-file and that I needed to include form TC-40S with my return.  Was TurboTax really telling me to find my own form TC-40S and fill it out myself?  Apparently so!  I was appalled, but I obediently found the form on line and started to fill it out.

What was I doing?!?#@*&%$#@

I sat back in my chair and calmly took inventory of my situation.  I bought the Premier version of Turbo Tax for about $60 at Costco.  Then I spent over $40 more to add another state to my return.  I had spent over $100 and all I had so far was emotional distress, loss of sleep, a pain in my chest, no chance of E-file, and a computer program telling me to get a form off-line and do it myself.

Just to let you know I have an appointment with a nice tax lady this Friday afternoon.  She comes highly recommended and best of all......

She doesn't use TurboTax.

================================================

UPDATE - 30 March 2013

I drove to to the CPA's home and within 45 minutes she had completed my taxes.  She found a significant error in the draft Turbo Tax Federal Return....Turbo Tax had failed to identify and withhold a $500 fee for early withdrawal of money from an IRA.  That is a significant error!!!  But even though I had to pay additional tax, I will be getting a significant tax return this year.

The CPA charged me $85 for her work, which I gladly paid and I went home to wait for my checks to come from the IRS.

I count the $100 that I wasted on Turbo Tax to be a "Lesson Learned".  I will not use Turbo Tax ever again.  It is more expensive than a personal tax person and if I had used it to do my 2012 taxes there is a big chance that I would have been audited and had to pay back taxes, penalty as well as interest.