Norbert says he spotted a $15 fee for “Unlimited Ask a Tax Expert” on his friend’s return, and customer service told him he’d either have to pay the fee or re-do his return. The friend paid the fee and are now awaiting the refund.

Norbert writes:

I’m not sure if other people are having the same problem, but I thought I would give you a tip. This weekend I worked on my friend’s tax return on TurboTax Online. His return is pretty simple and it usually takes me a couple of hours. After completing the return and when we got to the Payment page, I noticed that there was a fee for $14.95 for “Unlimited Ask a Tax Expert”. I scoured the help pages to see how this fee was charged and how I could have it removed. I never found any answers so I called the Intuit help desk. They told me that I would have to either start the return over or pay the fee and they could refund it immediately. We paid the normal filing fee + $14.95 fee. There is a 10-day wait for the $14.95 to be refunded so we are still awaiting the refund.

I came home and did my own tax return using the same process. I was very careful to be sure not to “Accept” any fees. Again, when I got to the payment page, there was the $14.95 Unlimited Ask a Tax Expert Fee. Again, I called the help desk and they refunded the fee.

There might be a fine print in the EULA which says that the fee will be charged, but I want others to be aware to check their invoices if they are doing their taxes online via Turbo Tax.

TurboTaxers, if you’ve noticed the fee, or any other funny charges, please share your stories.

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