It seems that TurboTax calculated my Earned Income Credit to be double what it should have been, and also claimed the Additional Child Credit which apparently I was not eligible for. So now I’m in the hole for 2400 due to no error on my part. Since my household income comes from my paltry unemployment check and my disabled daughter’s SSI, I really can’t afford to pay this back. I will have to contact Intuit on Monday and will keep you updated.

Oddly enough, I did make an error on my earned income reporting in that I claimed a lower amount. This error would not have effected my tax liability, but would have increased the amount of EIC claimed by TurboTax (and thus given me an even bigger bill than I have now).

Hopefully, I will be able to get this resolved. (Original comment edited by Moderator)

Initially, my wife was advised by TT (phone) to initiate contact with IRS; the web site said “…don’t do anything [proactive] unless you get a letter from the IRS… [then deal with it]” Outstanding advice! My wife decided to get pro-active, thus started a day of fun(?) in a do it yourself root canal kind of way. The TT rep was great to deal with, generally sharing the same sentiments for resolution previously expressed; as time wore one (I’m sure his supervisor was giving him Hades for time spent with one client) the TT rep. sided even more with us.

After finally getting off the phone, my wife started the re-construction process. There was one minor problem, in order to recreate the blunders ALL questions have to be answered exactly the same! With the reams of back up paper printed, the info of record was incomplete due to lack of ‘temporary worksheets’, etc.! There was yet another call, this time answered by someone that that knew what permissions had to be given to TT to pull up the complete records, and all worksheets done. in 10-12 business days we will know for sure if we can figure out what the damages will be. Still don’t have the money, and the question of penalties, fines etc. being due at the time of filing the amended return is going for want of a definite answer.

Re: IRS not responsible for software accuracy. There are sections of CFR & USC that set standards to be upheld for compatibility and accuracy od products before an agency can accept a product for use; if this isn’t so what were IRS’ issues with previous vendors and a reluctance to allow use of their products?

Re: taxpayer responsibility, as there was [generally] no attempts to defraud IRS, my original thesis remains- Intuit & IRS should work out a deal to COMPLETELY FORGIVE the debt & penalties which has happened before. Perhaps Mr. Freret being as noble and patriotic as his intentions expressed in the interview wouldn’t mind using some of his IRS bounty money to help the affected folks.

BTW, I’d still would like to get a copy of Mr. Freret’s email, or home address- I would still like to thank him. A true Patriot doesn’t hide under the bed when things get a bit rough, he/she joins the other Patriots to take the fight forward to the enemy. Perhaps Whitman was right when he said via Pogo “we have met the enemy and he is us!” [the taxpayers in this case].

Though the IRS allows returns to be submitted to them through Turbo Tax; this does not mean that they have checked the accuracy of the software. Returns are reviewed as selected for audit and the calculations are checked at that point; so the IRS does not guarantee that any software is correct, they only allow the returns to pass through the systems to them.

It can take 2-3 years for the IRS to issue a letter regarding a discrepancy in the preparation of a return so it is very possible to get a letter down the line if the discrepancy is recent. As the taxpayer it is your responsibility to correct any errors you find on your return regardless of the IRS’s action, however in some cases the IRS does not catch the error at all and if the time passes they will miss out on retrieving the funds.

It is highly unlikely that the IRS will retroactively deem something as non-taxable that has already been labeled as taxable. So unfortunately though the idea of tax forgiveness would be nice the taxpayer is going to be responsible to pay the liability. According to the law the taxpayer is the only one responsible to pay the tax liability so Intuit is only responsible to pay the interest and penalties which they have already stated they will pay.

Since you are affected by this issue, you should contact intuit directly and ask their customer service how they will be handling this issue. We would be very curious to know their reply.

I am on SSDI, my wife is retired; we are affected by Mr. Freret’s discovery to ~$2k. This is before penalties & interest, which Turbo Tax states they will cover. The mistake was honest, without intent to defraud IRS.

Turbo Tax (TT), by their admission offered a defective program that did not force a review or stops like it does in other parts of their programs to prevent this type of mistake.

IRS accepted TT’s product for use giving proof that the product was good and free from defects; their acceptance of the TT program would imply that there is a guarantee of it working perfectly. It did not!

We did not get a COLA this year, nor next year; most likely a COLA is 4-5 years away. Mr. Freret should be getting a portion of what IRS subsequently ‘recovers’ under various programs/laws.

Will he financially help those affected by TT’s error?

Will he start an action to get those affected by TT’s error to have the amount forgiven? And those amounts made non-taxable?

Not to question anyone’s intentions, but when discussions took place, why wasn’t the forgiving all amounts due a subject and part of the outcome?

Can I get a copy of Mr. Freret’s email? I would like to thank him.