TurboTax 2015 (tax year 2014) UPSELL

Not to bring this up again, but....

Just bought T/T for t/y 2014. Got PREMIER this year as they claim PREMIER is needed for Sch D .

The Q&A for PREMIER (where they say Sch D support moved to this year) states "You'll need TurboTax Premier if you sold investments (stocks, bonds, options, etc.) or owned rental property in 2014."

Just not sure I understand why if one got 'only' DELUXE version and needed to do a Sch D that DELUXE would suffice.

btw, see:

. BASIC edition no longer supports FORMS view. So if that is in the past where one entered manually Sch D info, no joy this year. I would suspect that the dialog method does not ask any questions about the sale of securities if both BASIC and DELUXE editions don't support Sch D.)

Hi, All...

Replying to myself to report that I've now tried TTax 2015 Basic and the results were disappointing. See my post today in the newer thread, "Re: TurboTax 2014 - Basic version NO LONGER has Forms Mode", started by ps56k on

11/25/2014.

RC

-- -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX (Retired. No longer licensed to practice public accounting.) snipped-for-privacy@grandecom.net Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010) (Using Quicken Deluxe 2015 R3 and Windows Live Mail in Win8.1 x64)

Hi, Bart.

Well, they can't sell a package that can't produce a completed return. They can make US do more of the work, but the return must be ready to file when we finish - and all the essential pieces have to be there, whether Intuit reminds us or not. It is still OUR return and OUR responsibility to get it right, not Intuit's.

The IRS would not take kindly to me if I protested that my return was incomplete because I could not afford to buy the high-priced program.

And see my reply to Andrew.

RC

Why "must" they do that?

Actually, RC, to give credit where credit is due, I think 'Al' brought this whole issue about what version of TT to buy for security sales ORIGINALLY last month on 10/20, and I chimed in immediately as to how TT was able to do Sch D in a version (ie: Basic) that they clearly stated did not support investments unless you were in PREMIER. This is not news to those that follow this NG for over a month.

I 'broke down' and bought PREMIER. Even if FORMS mode allows one to enter Scd D transactions in DELUXE (which I always had bought in the past), it is now so complex (different from complicated, at least to me), I'd rather have the interview panels generate the forms themselves in PREMIER. My piece of mind is certainly worth more than the incremental cost of PREMIER over DELUXE.

Of course, YMMV.

Has anyone bought TT Deluxe to see if it really does not handle financial equity downloads and if it has really lost the ability to handle schedule D as it always had?

Jeff

I find H&R Block web site very unhelpful on their software. They are trying more to sell their local offices.

The 2014 Deluxe program currently states you cannot Import until sometime in Jan.

the following is from H&R Block Tax 2014 Deluxe version help file. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ The H&R Block Tax Software can import any Tax Exchange Format (TXF) file. Many financial packages now include support for the Tax Exchange Format. The Tax Exchange Format uses an identifier for each category of tax information, and specifies which form and line the data should be imported to. If you have a program that supports the Tax Exchange Format, read your program's documentation for details about creating a Tax Exchange Format file

\\\\\\\\\\\\ The following web site discusses which brokerage was included in the

2013 versions.

Well, shiver me timbers if this thread gets more complex, but what I have to add is experience note and question on using TT 2014 Dlx to fill in Sched D in Forms view.

1. Opened Sched D, which now included some stuff from our 2013 return, so as to get a jump on listing sales of investments during 2014.
2. Tried entering totals. Not allowed. Shown blue box to suck in Form 8749 data.
3. Tried opening Form 8749. Not allowed. Informed with pop-up that Form 8749 is created by starting Sched D. BUT...BUT....BUT.... But... I thought I had just OPENED Sched D with data in it.

NOW, I believe I read in this thread or the newer one dealing with forms that SOMEONE had started Ttax 2014 and ploughed ahead manually filling in Sched D.

Please, if anyone of you has done this or can guide me back to post in question, let me know.

Else, I'm just going to cave in, ante up the $30 upgrade-to-Premium fee and do what has to be done.

Thanks. AL.

(Intentionally posting in both threads that covered this topic since different users may have notifications for their threads.)

This was mentioned in the CBS "Moneywatch" morning segment:

> > > Hi, All...

Great information obtained from this NG.

fferent users may have notifications for their threads.)

forms may get $25 (or maybe the actual incremental cost difference you pai d).

DANG! I was going to report this, but it seems some early birds mentioned w hile I was at the gym. In any case, Andrew & Bartt, the $25 is short of the $32.10 I paid Intuit for the upgrade privilege. Ah, well. Let's see what i s actually going to be done. PS first saw this in RTT News item (whoever th ey are) dated today at 11:57 AM and reported through Google Finance app on my phone.... The customer claim website is

but only if you have filed (efiled?) 2014 taxes. The message received on site is: "S orry, we cannot verify your eligibility. This offer is available to returni ng Deluxe (CD/download) customers who have completed this year in TurboTax Premier or Home & Business." How do you like them apples?

Hi RC! You probably are aware, but just in case...on 2/6, TT released maintenance that restored FORMS mode in BASIC.

Hi, Andrew.

Thanks for the heads-up. But I've already upgraded to Premier (in addition to Basic), installed it and started using it to "preview" my return. I'm still waiting for a couple of 1099s. After I file, and after the dust settles, I'll consider whether to ask for a full or partial refund of the $15 + $80 that I paid. I got the email last week offering me $25 back after I efile for 2014.

RC

-- -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX (Retired. No longer licensed to practice public accounting.) snipped-for-privacy@grandecom.net Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010) (Using Quicken Deluxe 2015 R4 and Windows Live Mail in Win8.1 x64)

R. C. White wrote:

Hi RC! You probably are aware, but just in case...on 2/6, TT released maintenance that restored FORMS mode in BASIC.

No problem. I bought the PREMIER edition as part of a bundled pkg at Best Buy (along w/Quicken DELUXE). I am not sure I can even tell how much additional I paid for the PREMIER over DELUXE edition of TT in that pkg. (I suppose I could go and find out what the pkg would be with JUST TT Deluxe). Can't be that much more than $25, so I'll just be going with the $25 rebate after I submit my t/y 2014 returns.

So you say "I'll consider whether to ask for a full or > partial refund of the $15 + $80 that I paid. ". Good luck with that if it is more than $25! I'd love to hear how that turns out.

Andrew,

I'm getting a full refund of what I paid for Premier at Costco ($62). I wa s one of the earlyish irritated posters on one of the blogs that Intuit was monitoring, and I got an unsolicited email from someone named Rick who off ered me a free product upgrade to whichever level I needed, and then, once I explained I had already ordered and paid for Premier, told me to just sen d him the invoice copy. Since it's been longer than the 2-3 weeks he thoug ht it would take, I recently emailed him again to see if he and the offer w ere for real, and he assured me that it had been approved and he would moni tor it to make sure I got it. I have to admit I don't know why I'm gettin g a full refund and the rest of "you" are only offered a $25 rebate, but I' m not knocking it.

It still boggles my mind that a company as "big" as Intuit would not have b rains in the PR department to know that the handling of their product chang es was pure idiocy.

jo

They have a history of that going back a number of years, just after Chipsoft sold out to Intuit. The first major screw up was attempting to impose a Microsoft style activation on Quicken users. That failed mostly because (strangely enough) MS Money was a viable competitor.

Then there was the idiot who started Mint who was quoted in the public press after Intuit bought Mint as saying that Desktop users of Intuit products were going to be abandoned. Fortunately they pushed him out on an extended vacation and then got rid of him.

"The first major screw up was attempting to impose a Microsoft style activation on Quicken users"

Arthur, you sure this is right? I don't remember that happening with Quicken. I've been using Q since 1989, but of course my memory might be failing.

It did happen with TurboTax, and people were getting real pissed that they couldn't file close to 4/15 because the Intuit activiation servers where done or overloaded. Multiple times I had to call them to resend some unlock key manually during that fiasco for my TT.

Perhaps you are right - I'm not sure which product it was.

On Sat, 14 Feb 2015 05:50:09 -0700, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in :

It was TurboTax. I think if I looked really hard, I could find my copy of the software CD in the package along with a floppy that had a copy of HDD sector 33 (that's in the unused space between the MBR and the first partition) that will tell TT it's good to go on any PC.

Before you ask, yes, I have a floppy drive, but it's probably time to just make a new CD that includes TT 200x, that sector, and the software to write it.

OTOH, that's a long time ago.