In an argument that reminds me of Tim Geithner’s painful Senate hearings, a taxpayer claimed that her failure to account for all of her taxable income was the result of “honest mistakes” resulting from her lack of familiarity with the TurboTax progam. Unfortunately for her, the Tax Court did not buy it, Bartlett v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2012-254 (Sept. 4, 2012):
Petitioner claims she used the audit portion of the TurboTax program, believing the audit portion would catch any mistakes she otherwise might make. …It is apparent that a portion of the information petitioner entered into the TurboTax program was incorrect; hence the mistakes made (which resulted in the underpayment) were made by petitioner, not TurboTax. TurboTax is only as good as the information entered into its software program. See Bunney v. Commissioner, 114 T.C. 259, 267 (2000). Simply put: garbage in, garbage out.
Hat Tip (Tax Prof Blog)