Sweet Gummi Mary! I spent another three hours on taxes, and had them all done Tuesday morning by 11:00. I called Farmer H to get his driver's license info in order to file our taxes online. Same as every other year using TurboTax.
Yes, I had the whole day ahead of me. Looking forward to going to town for scratchers, since I had missed that on Sunday and Monday. I had my credit card at my elbow, ready to pay the $25 it costs to file a Missouri return online. Hit the button to do so. Got a message that TurboTax was saving my return. And then, I got
THE WHITE POP-UP SCREEN OF DEATH!!!
Seriously. I thought it was just taking a while. TurboTax always runs slow on HIPPIE. I waited 6 MINUTES! Still nothing. No opportunity to enter my credit card info. Nothing at all. Just a white screen. Mrs. HM is no fool! I closed that white pop-up screen of death, and it went back to the TurboTax screen which now said it appeared that my payment had not gone through. No excrement, Sherlock! It could not have gone through, since I didn't get a chance to enter my info!
I tried that three more times. Always the same result. I consulted my estranged BFF Google. Aha! A lot of people were having that problem! Some as far back as 2019. I suppose I am lucky that mine worked all those years. But of all the times for it to fail me, this year, when I waited until two weeks before the filing deadline.
I went back, and tried the option to use my federal refund to pay for my Missouri e-file. That looked like it was about to work. I put in all the info that I didn't really want to share. And then it said there would be an extra $40 fee for processing this option! That's highway robbery! Dirty pool! Poppycock! Yet it was worth $40 to me to get it over with and file my returns.
When I attempted to send my returns, I got a notice that this option was currently unavailable.
WHAT IN THE NOT-HEAVEN???
Farmer H came home to shower for bingo. I explained the predicament. Told him we might as well mail in our tax returns. They were already prepared with the TurboTax software. I used to send them by mail. All I needed was a PRINTER, since my new one does not work! I told Farmer H that I would email him an attachment of our completed forms, so he could get them printed at the UPS Store, which he uses for printing forms for his business
While driving home from town, it occurred to me that I might be able to e-file our federal return, and just mail the Missouri return, since it is free to e-file the federal. We'll see how it goes...
I called The Pony to explain, since he has completed his taxes, but not yet filed. He has a different version of TurboTax. I said I'd address his envelopes for him if he couldn't e-file. For somebody who works for the post office, The Pony is sorely lacking in envelopes and skill at addressing them.
Perhaps you need a newer updated version of Turbo tax? I don't recall what program I used, but it was a free download and the same every year. No charge for filing a return either. Your country seems to make everything so hard!
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteNo, I have to buy the newest one each year, because it's based on the tax year. THEN, when I load it on my computer, it runs updates first. The newest update when I loaded it was only two days previous! I wonder what happens to people who filed back in February. They might have got a better tax break! Or might owe more.
There is a free version of TurboTax online, as well as one hosted by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), and other providers. But they have income limits to use them for free, and we don't qualify. Filing the Federal return was free, and it was just TurboTax charging a fee to file a state return online.
You can still get all the paper forms yourself, and mail any tax return for only your cost of postage. Still, my ordeal was cheaper than taking it to a tax professional. My mom used to spend several hundred dollars on hers. Our tax process is incredibly complicated, I agree!