MELANIE GESY NEWS

TurboTax problem spending wayward $1,122 tax credits , Woman in Edmonton claims

'I realized that this really was not making any sense. We weren't entitled to this'

Each year Alison Stephens aids her children file their income tax returns online, both full time college students.

Yet this month while utilizing Intuit's TurboTax Premier version, Stephens encountered what she says is a problem which granted her kids tax returns worth greater than a thousand dollars each.

"This year I changed to a different program, the Premier program, and I started doing the tax returns for my kids," Stephens claimed.

"When I was doing it, I noticed there was a working income tax credit that was showing up at the end, even though in the situation of one of them, he had absolutely no working income. It was all based on scholarships."

The credit report on each income tax return is $1,122.

While completing the paperwork, Stephens claimed the program instantly skipped to the "yes" box for the Working Income Tax Credit which does not apply to her Children, since they are full time students.

Stephens changed the credit in a different location on the tax return.

However on her daughters form, Stephens had not been able to fix it and also the return was sent in with the mistake.

Stephens claimed she called Intuit.

'We weren't entitled to this'

"When I was looking at it afterwards, I realized that this really was not making any sense. We weren't entitled to this."

Stephens claimed she browsed on the internet discussion forums and also located others that had actually declared the $1,122 credit scores also.

"So I phoned TurboTax and what they basically told me is that they wouldn't do anything "I said, 'You've had this error - you know it's an error because you responded to the person last year and you're not fixing it - and they said, 'I know.' "

The Canadian Revenue Agency claims it has not heard of any type of issue relating to incorrect claims associated with the Working Income Tax Benefit credit.

"If a taxpayer notices that an error has been made, they should wait until they receive a notice of assessment to determine if their return has been assessed with changes to the return originally submitted, " said CRA spokesperson Randy Westerman.

"Although third-party software is certified by the CRA, the functionality is the responsibility of the developer," he included.

Stephens stated she is discouraged by Intuit's actions.

"If they had said, 'We're going to look into it and there may be an update,' then I'd have been happy as a clam because you want to have that ability to say there's an error and them to take you seriously and say, "We're going to fix it.' "