IRS helps TurboTax software user

THE US taxman has decided to bend the rules for a man who did his return wrong using a computer program called TurboTax and missed $70,000 worth of tax deduction.

The ruling by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) allowed the unnamed taxpayer to re-file late and claim an option which would have allowed him to treat capital gains as investment income, which would give him more tax free dollars.

The IRS decided that because he used TurboTax software, the taxpayer did not understand that the option to make the election existed or would affect his liability.

But, a spokesperson for Intuit, which makes TurboTax, seems to think there is some doubt about this because Turbot Tax does alert its customer of the deduction and fully explains it. Said rep said it was just a case of user error. It is interesting that the IRS didn't check, before allowing the claim.

You can read all about it here, if the lethal cocktail of tax and software interests you. µ

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