I just spent the better part of my evening retrieving my 2005 tax return from TurboTax. Earlier in the month, I realized that I’d misplaced my soft copy and decided that I’d better retrieve it to make sure and stay on top of my game just in case the IRS auditors ever come knocking. But then there was a problem…

You see, I used a different TurboTax login name for 2005 than I did for my recent return in 2006, and on top of that, I no longer had access to the e-mail address I used to register with TurboTax in 2005. That eliminated options for getting into my account online.

So, I used their live chat feature, and within mere moments, a gentleman told me that to get into my 2005 account I’d need to fill out an e-mail change request. Whew! I wouldn’t have been too shocked to have been told that my account was jacked up forever and that if I wanted to do anything about it, I’d have to stay on hold for 27.5 hours just to reach someone that either hangs up on me or can’t solve my problems. Or both. (At least that’s what I used to getting from my old cell phone provider.) As I clicked on the link that was provided to me, I was fully expecting to see something that required me to fax or mail in proof of identity, which would be sort of a hassle since I don’t have a full time fax machine here at home. But then I was surprised…

Instead, I had to fill out an online form with some personal information in it, and after that — here comes the neat part — I was able to scan in a digital copy of my driver’s license (or passport, or notarized document of some sort) and upload it to prove that I am indeed Matthew Russell of Northern VA. Then, within just a few minutes, I received an e-mail indicating that someone had confirmed my request and reset my account. Pretty neat, eh? That makes me love TurboTax (all over again). Not rocket science, but a pretty nice approach to confirming your identity. But that’s not the end of it…

Using Firefox and Safari, I still could not get to my previous tax return once I had logged in (sigh.) Instead of getting a nice little menu with my previous return when I clicked on the “Previous Returns” link, all I got was an annoying popup that told me how there could be two problems: I either didn’t have Adobe Reader installed, or I didn’t actually have any past returns. (Well, gee, which one is it?) I already had Adobe Reader installed…but I installed it again. And then I installed the Safari plugin. The installation for Adobe Reader was clunky and somewhat painful to watch, and TurboTax still didn’t cooperate afterward. This where I started to hate TurboTax and accuse it of losing my previous return. But then I called into tech support…

As I was waiting on hold, I was fully expecting to get someone on the other end of the line who would bumble around, tell me how they don’t really know what the problem is and that I should either give up or try to get a copy from the IRS. But — and this is where I start to love TurboTax again — a very competent individual helped me with my problem, appeared to be running queries against a data warehouse of some sort, did all sorts of cross references, and assured me that my previous return was in the system. About the very time that this person was about to give me final instructions on what to do, my VoIP phone started to break up and then I got disconnected. (No, I kid you not.) This is where I started to hate Vonage…

But, before going out into the street and promptly destroying my Vonage router, I decided to pull out my MacBook and try retrieving the return through Windows. And it worked. (Thanks, VMWare Fusion Beta 3.) I sort of hated to find out that OS X wasn’t playing nice with TurboTax (or is it the other way around?) but at the same time I was ready to call it quits. After 3 solid hours of trying to accomplish a relatively simple task, I really didn’t care at that point. And what am I talking about…it’s never simple when it involves the government (even tangentially), now is it? On top of that, I was too pooped to even bother going out and tossing my Vonage router into oncoming traffic…maybe tomorrow.

So to wrap all of that up…Kudos to TurboTax (I think). Boo on Adobe for having such a clumsy installer. Boo on Vonage for dropping my call (we will get even soon). Kudos to VMWare (and Windows) for saving the day. Boo on OS X (and/or TurboTax?) for not making it easier for me to retrieve PDF files from TurboTax.

And boo on the government for taking so much of my money and having such a complicated tax system in the first place?