Open Warfare Against Turbo Tax

I've been wanting to blog about my recent conversion to vegetarian, but I've got the taste of venom in my mouth, and I'd rather share that.

I hate Turbo Tax.

Actually, I used to love it. It's been probably a decade since I did my taxes by pen and calculator... I don't remember the last time. How wonderful to input seemingly imaginary numbers, receiving encouragement with each click of "continue", and finally the moment when you discover Uncle Sam is going to send you a monetary token of his appreciation for your hard work all year.

I do, however, remember these last 3 filings that have left me bitter and angry.

I feel like I've been grinding my teeth for the last 2 hours.



2010
As I filed our taxes jointly just a few weeks after I lost Roger, I was slapped in the face when I discovered that in spite of all the other horrors of my year, I now owed money because of Roger's military earnings and some contracted work subject to self-employement taxes. Not Turbo Tax's fault per se, but you know what they say about the messenger.

2011
Finally at the end of navigating through my finances as a Qualifying Widow in the eyes of the IRS, I was asked to enter our PINs right at the very end... Guess what? When your social security number has been "retired", the IRS won't give you a PIN... And even when Turbo Tax tells you they have accepted your tax submission using the alternative (your Adjusted Gross Income from the previous year), they wait until you have gone to bed to email you that they have decided instead to reject your e-filing. But please feel free to print all of that online work and snail mail it in... Because as a widow you haven't filled out enough paper work that year.

2012
Feeling more positive that, despite being responsible for $1200 more per year now as "Single", my new filing status would bring me back to a more simple filing process, I gave myself 20 minutes to take care of my taxes. That was before Turbo Tax decided I need to repay the First Time Home Buyer's Credit we received with the purchase of our house four years ago since Roger doesn't live here anymore... 2 hours and 7 minutes of seeking online support later, the support tech and I decided to simply delete that form and hope for the best. Turbo Tax has (at this point) accepted my e-file... at least until I go to bed.



When does it end???
Why am I still being plagued by paperwork 2 years later???

And why hasn't Turbo Tax figured out how to tailor its services to appropriately and delicately address a very real percentage of our population that doesn't need more forms, more signatures, and more reality checks.