Tax return different than Turbo Tax said?

[Aristomommy]

I got my tax refund Friday, but the amount was about $200 less than what turbo tax estimated. Is this common? This is my 3rd year using turbo tax and it has never happened to me.

 

[disneychrista]

You will get a letter from the IRS if your refund is different than what your return said.

 

[Swimalie]

This happened to us once with our state return and we used Turbo Tax. We got a letter from the state saying that we miscalculated and we were owed $8 more. Nothing else happened as far as contact.

 

[Aristomommy]

Maybe turbo tax did miscalculate something. They have been right on with us for the last 2 years so this was something new. Now I hope they miscalculated our state in our favor, since I have to send in $300, LOL !!!

 

[Mommytwotwins]

Did you maybe owe money to the irs or state for anything...if you did it is possible they took that to pay a past due balance. Or like others have said maybe a miscalculation and they fixed it. Either way you should get something telling you why.

 

[mrsklamc]

I hear more and more about people having trouble with TurboTax. A friend of mine used it for years and when she finally went to an accountant she'd been overpaying for years. I wonder how many people are getting messed up by them, and I'm sure the fine print says they have no liability.

 

[Aristomommy]

Did you maybe owe money to the irs or state for anything...if you did it is possible they took that to pay a past due balance. Or like others have said maybe a miscalculation and they fixed it. Either way you should get something telling you why.

I don't think we owed from last year, I would have gotten a notice by now, I think. I am sure I will eventually hear from the IRS why there was a difference. This will be our last year using them, we will need an accountant next year to figure out the adoption tax credit

 

[jen22984]

Had the same thing happen to us this year, to the tune of over $900!!!! from what we've found out, the Turbo Tax software didn't have the latest update when we filled out our taxes so when the IRS checked ours the amount was way over what it should be.

 

[msmayor]

I hear more and more about people having trouble with TurboTax. A friend of mine used it for years and when she finally went to an accountant she'd been overpaying for years. I wonder how many people are getting messed up by them, and I'm sure the fine print says they have no liability.

Not liable at all, because Turbo Tax is not the one actually entering the information into the program to create the return.

I believe that in most cases this type of problem is because people don't treat their information correctly and it gets entered wrong or not at all.

Its like the old saying goes - garbage in, garbage out.

Turbo Tax should never be looked upon as a panacea for folks who really don't 'know' how to do taxes and as a way to save money on preparer fees. You still have to know and understand what your return SHOULD look like in the end, and how to treat certain tax items/issues that crop up during the year.

As I know I've mentioned here before, we had a tax issue a few years ago that I knew should have produced a certain number on my return, in a certain spot. Turbo Tax refused to do the computation correctly, and I attributed that to the obscurity of the tax condition (it was computing the gain/loss on the sale of a property that was converted from personal use to rental use, and the computation for gain or loss requires a few steps). I knew that I had NO gain or loss to report, but Turbo Tax insisted I had a gain and there was no logical way for me to force the numbers to come out correctly, even over-riding their numbers on the forms wouldn't work.

But I knew the tax treatment, and knew that Turbo Tax was wrong. Most average tax payers would have just entered their numbers and accepted the gain, paying MORE in taxes than they should.

Was it Turbo Tax's fault? Not really. Programming in the most obscure and rare tax conditions could make the program quite bloated and more expensive.

You still have to spend the time to know and understand your taxes. Don't just 'enter numbers' and assume that ANY tax program is producing a return that is free of errors.

 

[crazyredhead]

We did Turbo Tax this year and we got $1400 less than we expected. We have used TT for years and never had a problem until now.

It has been 2 weeks - still waiting on our letter.

It really stinks because this was going to be our fun money at WDW next month.

 

[happygirl]

My bet it was garnished

 

[amcnj]

I too have used turbotax for years, but keep a close eye on the output. I have found errors, mostly figures not being carried forward from input sheets to the actual return. A couple years back a deductible tax did not carry to schedule A. I called turbotax to report it, but the person I spoke with did not seem to understand what I was talking about nor did they seem to really care. I always wondered how many other people did not catch that error and paid more than they should have. Fortunately I had done my taxes manually for many years before this so had a basic understanding of how things should work. I do feel since using turbotax that I am more out of touch with changes to the tax laws though.

 

[crashbb]

Turbo Tax if very off for me this year. I know what the problem is (is it trying to tax income that shouldn't be taxed), but I cannot fix it.

I just run it through Turbo Tax to get a general idea what what is going on before my dad (an account) actually does my taxes, so it isn't a big deal, but I could see someone who is using it and doesn't know the rules being very messed up (it is off by almost $5000).

I've run the numbers through another software an their numbers are in line with what I know they should be, so it is a glitch in Turbo Tax.

 

[McKelly]

I also used TT this year and my state was way off, but Fed was fine. Oye, it was $900.00 off. Good thing I wasn't counting on that money! Still got a refund, but knew something was a little hokey because it was way more than I was expecting.

 

[LadyBeBop]

For those waiting for that "IRS letter" that explains why your refund if off, I wouldn't wait. I'd call the IRS hotline. 800-829-1040.

They could explain why your refund isn't what it is. Sometimes it's as simple as a transcribed digit on a social security number. Or on your withholding.

I'd call the hotline now and see what's going on.

 

[mrsklamc]

You still have to spend the time to know and understand your taxes. Don't just 'enter numbers' and assume that ANY tax program is producing a return that is free of errors.

I don't know if this was directed at me personally, or just a general statement. We use a CPA because we KNOW that we don't know. My W-2 was wrong this year and I never would have known. I just wonder how many people use TurboTax thinking it's a great deal but are really being penny wise and pound foolish.

 

[msmayor]

I don't know if this was directed at me personally, or just a general statement. We use a CPA because we KNOW that we don't know. My W-2 was wrong this year and I never would have known. I just wonder how many people use TurboTax thinking it's a great deal but are really being penny wise and pound foolish.

Not directed at you personally at all...only supporting your statement about why people have trouble with Turbo Tax.

I've just seen and heard of far too many people who think that Turbo Tax "knows" it all, and makes doing your taxes so easy. The whole "GPS" thing they tout about telling you how the program directs you so simply is really misleading; you still need to know something about the process of completing your taxes and interpreting the results to get them right.

It CAN be easy...if you know and understand the process.