With regard to my TurboTax Case # 1788173869336, the specialist was able to help me quickly. My TurboTax program would not download my state tax documents. The specialist sent me a link to the state forms, all were downloaded OK, and I was able to complete my 2025 income tax return, federal and state. I was on the phone with the specialist for about 5 minutes. Relatively quickly, from my perspective. I give her a 5* rating.
Likewise, I had another problem with the Turbo Tax Federal Individual Tax software, also described below. Case #: 1790675205659. This time it was a problem with using Turbo Tax to transmit my Federal tax return online. Charles helped me. Within less that 10 minutes of his assistance, I was able to transmit my return. I had to use the “Run as Administrator” function, but my return was transmitted. I also give Charles a 5* rating for his help. But. Can I give a negative rating for Turbo Tax software? See discussion below.
However, there is a broader issue here. I purchased TurboTax for preparing my tax returns for about 10 to 12 years now. With the 2025 software, I have had to call TurboTax Help three times now! I never had to do that with TT programs from prior years. All situations were at different points in the program, but the same function error. The first. When my Federal return was done, the program required me to save prior work, then check for any updates. I clicked OK for the update. The download wheel would spin, but nothing happened. The program would not go to the next step. It kept asking me to check for updates. An endless cycle. That was my first call to TT Help. That was resolved.
Likewise, when I had to download my state tax program, the same thing happened. Before the download, it saved my work, click “download,” the download wheel would spin, but nothing happened afterwards. I didn't get the state tax program. I was again instructed to download updates, again. An endless cycle. That was my second call to TT Help. That was resolved with the first case above, # ...9336.
The third problem was similar. When my Federal tax return was done and ready to send, I clicked the “Transmit Return” button on Turbo Tax. Same events. I had to check for downloads, wheel spins, nothing happened. Pop up again, Check for Updates. Endless cycle again! It wouldn't transmit my return. I had to call TT Help again (!), case #: ...5659. Charles assisted.
With all of these incidents, and every time I started my TurboTax program to continue where I left off, it would take an extremely long time for the home page to come up, where I could click the button to “Continue My Tax Return.” To open the program, the blue TurboTax box would appear for 3 to 5 minutes; “It's taking longer then expected.” Then a white box would pop up, saying there was an error. It referenced numbers, components of the program? I didn't understand it, but I clicked the “OK.” The home page would then appear about 30 seconds later. I could then click and work on my return where I left off. The white error box popped up Every time (!) I opened the TT program and with each download.
Even with these set backs, above, I was able to complete my federal and state tax returns. What was wrong with the 2025 edition of the TT software?? I am hoping that by going into these details, TurboTax can find and repair these errors before the 2026 TT programs come out. If I encounter problems again like those described above, I will likely be looking for other software for tax return preparation.