TurboTax -- interest and dividends section dramatically changed?

[BarbWire]

I just started TurboTax for 2024 today. I've been a user for years, and it all looked pretty normal, corresponding well to my notes/screenshots from last year (I always create a TurboTax narrative documenting each year's process). When I got to the Interest and Dividends section, I was gobsmacked: the user interface is completely different, and entering the data is a nightmare.

1. Is there a way to revert to the old "list of accounts with blue edit button" from prior years?

2. Is there a way to get a list that summarizes, say, interest income, by account for this year and the previous year? All I can find is the aggregate "interest in 2023, 2024" on the step-by-step index but when I hit "needs review" I get the new UI with the Fisher-Price boxes for each investment, not a summary table as before.

In addition, I have two brokerage accounts at Vanguard -- and so in the past in TTax I have them labeled with account number: "VG Brokerage *1234" and "VG Brokerage *4567" to differentiate their data, but TurboTax has blown that away and is lumping them together under "Vanguard Marketing Corporation" -- and I can't edit the name of the investment account.

I would bite the bullet and input the VG information by hand rather than importing it but I have international mutual funds and don't want to nerf the foreign tax credit calculation, which has always been a pain...

ARRRRRGH!

 

[Midpack]

I assume you’re talking about the online version (that I’ve never seen/used)?

Because I’ve finished and filed my returns using the desktop version and didn’t notice any significant changes in Easy Step (interview mode) or Forms. Or it may be that I enter all my data manually since I have a consolidated 1099, and maybe you’re talking the UI for uploading directly from your brokerage which I stopped doing years ago.

 

[GrayHare]

Yup, TT's new ints and divs entry process is painful. I think it changed last year. Now it requires repeated choices and involves lots of screen flickering and scrolling. Takes twice as long to enter 1099s as before.

 

[Jerry1]

I looked around and I think you're right that the two year view is gone. Only the total year amount is shown. I can never understand why companies change things like that in their software. Just because the programmer doesn't think it's necessary/valuable or that the "new" views are so much better, that doesn't mean the users think so. I wonder if they even run something like that by a user group. At any rate, knowing the total will give you an idea of something being missed or changed but a line by line would be much better.

 

[BarbWire]

I assume you’re talking about the online version (that I’ve never seen/used)?

Because I’ve finished and filed my returns using the desktop version and didn’t notice any significant changes in Easy Step (interview mode) or Forms. Or it may be that I enter all my data manually since I have a consolidated 1099, and maybe you’re talking the UI for uploading directly from your brokerage which I stopped doing years ago.

Nope, Deluxe Federal and State on my Windows 11 laptop. Easy Step was the same until step 4 in Income: Interest and Dividends, and then it became painful.
In the last few years I uploaded about half my accounts from brokerage and entered the remainder by hand. This year I will enter all by hand -- which also solves the problem of Schwab not being available for downnload until Feb 14 -- but as it noted downthread, it is painful.

Reminds me of the changes that Vanguard made to their website URL ....

 

[BarbWire]

I looked around and I think you're right that the two year view is gone. Only the total year amount is shown. I can never understand why companies change things like that in their software. Just because the programmer doesn't think it's necessary/valuable or that the "new" views are so much better, that doesn't mean the users think so. I wonder if they even run something like that by a user group. At any rate, knowing the total will give you an idea of something being missed or changed but a line by line would be much better.

Exactly: the account by account amounts for two years was a quick way to check for transposed digits, etc. Plus it was just interesting.

 

[AudiDudi]

<snip> I can never understand why companies change things like that in their software. Just because the programmer doesn't think it's necessary/valuable or that the "new" views are so much better, that doesn't mean the users think so. <snip>

Programmers have to write/change programs to keep/justify their job - just like lawmakers have to make new laws.

 

[harllee]

I just finished my tax return in TT online and to be honest I did not see any difference for interest and dividends and preparing my return my pretty fast even though I itemized deductions

 

[audreyh1]

Yup, TT's new ints and divs entry process is painful. I think it changed last year. Now it requires repeated choices and involves lots of screen flickering and scrolling. Takes twice as long to enter 1099s as before.

That’s too bad. I always download mine. So maybe I won’t experience this.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I'm using TurboTax Desktop for the Mac this year for the first time. I'm surprised how crappy the user interface is with this product. I thought the same with the Windows version in previous years, but the Mac version is worse. They really need to hire some decent software interface designers and revamp this product into what it should be in this day and age. With their market share, they should be producing a better product.

 

[Sunset]

I'm using TurboTax Desktop for the Mac this year for the first time. I'm surprised how crappy the user interface is with this product. I thought the same with the Windows version in previous years, but the Mac version is worse. They really need to hire some decent software interface designers and revamp this product into what it should be in this day and age. With their market share, they should be producing a better product.

And some designer will come up with the minimalist approach. Where software opens to a blank page and no menu is showing. I've seen it

 

[djsander]

I'm using TurboTax Desktop for the Mac this year for the first time. I'm surprised how crappy the user interface is with this product. I thought the same with the Windows version in previous years, but the Mac version is worse. They really need to hire some decent software interface designers and revamp this product into what it should be in this day and age. With their market share, they should be producing a better product.

I guess I’m so use to the interface it doesn’t bother me. I’ve used a Mac for a longtime.

 

[djsander]

And some designer will come up with the minimalist approach. Where software opens to a blank page and no menu is showing. I've seen it

As bad as blank page that says this page intentionally left blank,

 

[GrayHare]

That’s too bad. I always download mine. So maybe I won’t experience this.

You might avoid that, but downloading obscures whether Intuit is hoovering your data in order to sell it. That could help explain why the ints and divs entry page has been hobbled.

 

[audreyh1]

You might avoid that, but downloading obscures whether Intuit is hoovering your data in order to sell it. That could help explain why the ints and divs entry page has been hobbled.

If Intuit were doing that, why would downloading make any difference? The program has your data, hand entered or downloaded.

 

[GrayHare]

If Intuit were doing that, why would downloading make any difference? The program has your data, hand entered or downloaded.

The program may have your data but will find it difficult to silently upload to Intuit if you work offline, as some users prefer.

 

[audreyh1]

You still have to go online to eFile.

 

[Jerry1]

I'm using TurboTax Desktop for the Mac this year for the first time.

I switched to a Mac last year and before that used TT for windows for decades. While it was a little different, I really didn’t find it any more difficult to get the end product that I was working toward. Basically, I use a combination of the easy step (the interview) and the forms. Works for me. I don’t remember ever just going through the entire interview process. I think that would be very difficult to tolerate. Maybe they should make a version for advanced users and cut out all the superfluous stuff and just have some nice input worksheets.

 

[GrayHare]

Yes, if you efile, your data could be easily be copied as well. At least that is one way to devalue hacked databases, just put all your data out there for free.

 

[aldo]

I noticed this too on TT on my Mac. I enter INT and DIV manually and like to customize the payer's name. TT imported my customized names from last year's return just fine but wouldn't let me do so for new entries. To customize payer names, I had to do so in forms and then TT wouldn't flag the name as a problem

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I’m not complaining about the functionality of TT for Mac. Or Windows. It works and is somewhat intuitive to use. BUT from a cosmetic design perspective, it is not a good looking product. It intermixes multiple screen display paradigms. Some times it’s a paragraph of text and you select an answer, sometimes the page looks more like an html web page. Sometimes the page is an image and it looks somewhat blurry. It sometimes shows a pick list of options where you can’t read all the text in the boxes. The app itself launches into a narrow window size when it doesn’t have to. The use has to widen it in order to see all the menus at the top. And then it doesn’t remember that size the next time you come back into the app. The navigation screen flow sometimes is not obvious, like entering the investment sales. You navigate down into details and then have to flow back up. The way they do it takes some getting use to. Lots of things like this spell shaggy design and implementation. Sorry. I was a software guy in a former life. Things like this bother me.

 

[NeilDH]

I use TT for Mac desktop and did notice the interest and dividend input interface change, notably with the list of accounts as you say. I don’t love it, but I don’t think it took me any longer to enter, or download, either.

I use the interview process, selecting only the sections I know I’ll need, and Jerry1 is right; not a bad idea to just enter in Forms in some places. I dislike how you’re required to answer a series of questions at the end of some sections, especially repeatedly if you must go back into a section. Been that way for years. I suppose I should tell them this when asked to review the software. PaunchyPirate also has a point about clunky interface sometimes.

As some real tax preparers have advised on this website, the software isn’t be-all-know-all, either, and often you have to discern or know the answers yourself; you can’t completely trust the software especially when things get complicated. That’s a problem for many people using this software who know zilch about taxes. But tax preparers exist for a reason. I learned tax prep from a combination of the software, my own research over the years (often to understand or confirm the software, or answer what the software doesn’t), and finally coursework.

Jerry1, on wanting tax software for advanced users who could just complete worksheets, I understand software specifically for tax pros often is that - though it’s not usually cheap. (I was told here that Drake is, relatively?)

 

[frank05]

The only thing I don’t like is for downloading Schwab tax data you must do it through Intuit not direct from Schwab. This means you must give permission at Schwab for Intuit to access your account. At least this year, Intuit has a checkbox to discard the access permission. I assume this is a Schwab decision since the two other financial firms I download still use the direct access method.

 

[RunningBum]

I use the interview process, selecting only the sections I know I’ll need, and Jerry1 is right; not a bad idea to just enter in Forms in some places. I dislike how you’re required to answer a series of questions at the end of some sections, especially repeatedly if you must go back into a section. Been that way for years. I suppose I should tell them this when asked to review the software. PaunchyPirate also has a point about clunky interface sometimes.

I totally agree with this, it's a real nuisance to step through the multiple screens each time. I think it at least remembers your first answer but you still have to hit next. The worst was probably stepping through dividends with foreign income and taxes, which I no longer have.