TurboTax 2007 Can Cost Ohio Adopters $1000
TurboTax 2007 Deluxe has a major mistake in its Ohio Adoption Tax Credit. In June 2007, the governor of Ohio signed Senate Bill 20, which changed the adoption tax credit from $500 to $1500. TurboTax 2007, despite having nearly 6 months from when the bill was signed until 2008 did not implement the change in their tax product.
So, families who adopted in 2007, like myself, would be led to believe they could only claim a $500 credit. In fact, they could claim a $1500 credit! Since a tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction in the taxes owed, TurboTax is potentially cheating families out of $1000! So much for that guarantee of doing your taxes accurately, eh?
In addition to stating the wrong amount, the program does not honor its own maximum, as I was able to put in $2000 and get credited for it all! So, if I were to file this I would be trying to cheat Ohio out of more money than was allowed for the tax credit.
I reported this mistake to TurboTax tech support at 9:10 PM Eastern on Thursday, January 31, 2008. The rep verified and recorded the mistake and thanked me for reporting it. I am curious to see how long it will take before they release an update! I admit I was kind of hoping I’d get a free copy of Quicken or free TurboTax for life for potentially saving them from lots of claims for $1000 from filers who didn’t know the law had changed. No such luck 