Turbo Tax Deluxe 2016: Anyone Else Having Problems With ‘Estimated Tax Payment’ Entry

[ownyourfuture]

I’ve used TurboTax Deluxe since Y2-K, & even though my returns have become substantially more complicated since, I’ve always been able to complete them without issues. My tax info @ Fidelity won’t be ready until Feb 18th, so Friday, I decided to install it on my Mothers PC & help her do hers.

Guided her through all the initial questions, etc, & made sure she correctly entered the 2nd of (4) 1099-R’s.
When I saw that she 'had it down' I left for about 30 minutes to haul wood into the house. When I returned, she had just finished the last of the 1099’s

Shortly after, we moved onto the state part of the return. When that was completed, we both realized that no ‘estimated tax payment’ info had been requested/entered ?

At that point, I figured that she must have done something wrong while I was gone. I didn’t have time to ‘troubleshoot’ so we just closed the return & saved it. Today, even though my tax info isn’t available/official yet, I decided to do a ‘hypothetical’ return for myself using the 2016 tax info available @ Fidelity.

The results were the same. At no time did it cover/request ‘estimated tax’ payment info.
I was able to go back into ‘forms’ & ‘manually’ enter the payments I made. Even though it was a bit of a pain, everything looks good now.
Assuming the tax info I used, is the same as the ‘updated’ info available on Feb 18th, my return is complete.

*I have an Apple IMAC*

Tonight, I tried to do the same on my Mom’s return. She has a Window’s PC.
The TT software displays differently & I wasn’t able to correct it.

I suspect that Quicken made ‘subtle’ changes to ‘Deluxe’ this year to entice users to upgrade to ‘Premiere’ ?

If this is the case, fine, but at some point in the preparation, they should alert you to the fact, & offer someone who doesn’t have the ability to enter numbers manually, a quick & simple upgrade option.

 

[braumeister]

It should be in the "Deductions and Credits" section of the software (after "Wages and Income"). Did you see all the other parts of that section?

 

[gerntz]

I suspect that Quicken made ‘subtle’ changes to ‘Deluxe’ this year to entice users to upgrade to ‘Premiere’ ?

Quicken doesn't own/control TT. TT is owned by Intuit.

 

[misshathaway]

Same thing happened to me. Had to look it up. I think they changed it.

------------- TT Help I used ------------------

You can enter the estimated taxes you paid by following these steps:

In TurboTax, open your tax return and click on Federal Taxes, then Deductions & Credits
Under All tax breaks, locate the section named Estimates and Other Taxes Paid and click Show more
Click on Start next to Estimates

 

[The Rodent]

Quicken doesn't own/control TT. TT is owned by Intuit.

And Quicken is now owned by H.I.G Capital. So the 2 companies are no longer related.

 

[W2R]

I never intentionally allow TurboTax decide what my estimated tax payments should be. I'd rather do that myself.

However TurboTax Deluxe did that anyway for me this year. When I printed out the hard copy, there were the payment vouchers for estimated IRS payments. TurboTax decided my estimated tax payments should be exactly what I had decided they should be, to the dollar. OK, this year I just divided last year's taxes by 4 since I paid more than enough last year and I am not in danger of getting a penalty. So, TT can divide by 4 as easily as I can.

As always I'll ignore the TT calculation and use my own to schedule automatic IRS estimated tax payments at the EFTPS , and to schedule automatic Louisiana estimated tax payments at the Louisiana Department of Revenue website. Then I don't have to think about it except to have enough in my checking account for quarterly payments when due.

When doing my taxes, one of the questions was about estimated tax payments made last year. That's where TT finds out what my actual estimated payments were.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Quicken doesn't own/control TT. TT is owned by Intuit.

Correct: My mistake

 

[ownyourfuture]

It should be in the "Deductions and Credits" section of the software (after "Wages and Income"). Did you see all the other parts of that section?

As far as I know, yes, all the other parts were there.
2016 was my 1st 'full retirement year' & therefore I didn't have to enter a W-2

I'm wondering if this has something to do with it ?

Thanks for the reply

 

[ownyourfuture]

Same thing happened to me. Had to look it up. I think they changed it.

------------- TT Help I used ------------------

You can enter the estimated taxes you paid by following these steps:

In TurboTax, open your tax return and click on Federal Taxes, then Deductions & Credits
Under All tax breaks, locate the section named Estimates and Other Taxes Paid and click Show more
Click on Start next to Estimates

Thanks

 

[ownyourfuture]

I never intentionally allow TurboTax decide what my estimated tax payments should be. I'd rather do that myself.

However TurboTax Deluxe did that anyway for me this year. When I printed out the hard copy, there were the payment vouchers for estimated IRS payments. TurboTax decided my estimated tax payments should be exactly what I had decided they should be, to the dollar. OK, this year I just divided last year's taxes by 4 since I paid more than enough last year and I am not in danger of getting a penalty. So, TT can divide by 4 as easily as I can.

As always I'll ignore the TT calculation and use my own to schedule automatic IRS estimated tax payments at the EFTPS , and to schedule automatic Louisiana estimated tax payments at the Louisiana Department of Revenue website. Then I don't have to think about it except to have enough in my checking account for quarterly payments when due.

When doing my taxes, one of the questions was about estimated tax payments made last year. That's where TT finds out what my actual estimated payments were.

Agreed

Although I NEVER print the 'entire' return. Some years ago, I leaned the hard way. All the worksheets, special pages for MLP's, options, etc, plus the fact that I traded a lot back then, meant the total was something like 70 pages!

When the return is complete, I click on 'File' - 'Save To PDF' & then go through & print only the pages needed.

I then burn 2 copies of the PDF to DVD for back-up purposes, & uninstall the software.

And yes, I'm one of those dinosaurs who still 'mails it in'

 

[ownyourfuture]

Update: All my tax info was available at Fidelity yesterday & I was able to breeze through my return in just over an hour

Plus, my Portfolio hit a milestone number Friday I never would have dreamed of 20 years ago. When things are going that well, watch out!

Luckily for me the change in luck only involved my printer, which died after printing the 1st 4 pages of my federal return.

No biggie

Thanks for the replies

 

[RockyMtn]

in step by step format it is under "other tax situations" under "other tax forms", second from the bottom of the page.