State gives all clear for TurboTax users

TurboTax
Customer looks at a copy of TurboTax on sale at Costco in a file photo.
AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

The state of Minnesota says its okay again for taxpayers to prepare their 2012 returns with TurboTax and other Intuit products.

The Minnesota Department of Revenue said earlier this month that experts had found more than a dozen errors in the software, ranging from a miscalculation of the credit for married couples to an error in figuring property tax refunds.

"Intuit has fixed all 13 of those issues," said Assistant Commissioner Terri Steenblock, who oversees individual returns for the Revenue Department. "The last of the fixes were made on March 11. And since March 11, we have been working closely with them to run test files, and review the materials to make sure the product was truly fixed. And we are satisfied that the issues have been fixed."

Steenblock said that her agency will continue to monitor returns as they come in, looking for any other possible problems. She encouraged taxpayers to file electronically, where other software anomalies might be easier to spot and correct.

The Revenue Department says about 14,000 tax returns have been affected by the bad software. Steenblock said that the state will be meeting with Intuit after the tax filing season to try to avoid a repeat in future tax years.

"We will be following up, to hear the results of their findings, as to why these issues occurred and what they're going to do process-wise to make sure they avoid this situation next filing season," Steenblock said.

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