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question about using TurboTax from year to year...

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btownguy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2009
545
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I'm about to upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion. I have a question about TurboTax however. I did my 2010 tax return on this computer and plan to do my 2011 tax return as well. Last year was the first year I have used TurboTax.

I am thinking of doing a clean installation of Lion. When I install TurboTax next year and start to work on my 2011 tax return, what does it look at to get my previous years information? Does it just ask me for the file from last year's return (.tax2010 file extension)? Or are there some TurboTax configuration files somewhere on my system that I will need to have awareness of?
 
It just looks at your previous saved file. By the way you need to buy a new copy of TurboTax for each years return filed.
 
hikeNM said:
Just use the web based application by going to www.turbotax.com. The first year I bought the physical CD. But ever since, I just go to their website. It's worked great so far.
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At least in prior years, the free version on the website was limited to simple returns. If you just had wage and interest income, it was OK, but if you had investment gains or losses, business income, rental income, etc. you would need to get one of the more expensive versions.
 
KPOM said:
At least in prior years, the free version on the website was limited to simple returns. If you just had wage and interest income, it was OK, but if you had investment gains or losses, business income, rental income, etc. you would need to get one of the more expensive versions.
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That makes perfect sense. I've never had anything very in-depth like that. Thanks for the clarification.
 
Pretty sure it looks for your saved file from last year to pre-populate some fields. You should be able to just copy the 2010 turbo tax file over to use that.
 
Consultant said:
Pretty sure it looks for your saved file from last year to pre-populate some fields. You should be able to just copy the 2010 turbo tax file over to use that.
Click to expand...

Yep. I have used TurboTax for several years and all it looks for is the data file from the previous year. Works pretty well.
 
Isn't it merely an assumption of official Lion support for TurboTax 2011

As far as I have heard there is no official announcement so far by Intuit that Mac OS X Lion will be officially supported for TurboTax 2011. Considering Intuit's shoddy treatment of Quicken users, I would not put it past them to withhold official support of Lion even if TurboTax works perfectly well and tell Lion users they are not responsible for any problems with TurboTax 2011, and if users don't like it, to use Windows XP or 7 on a PC.

If Intuit wanted to exact some revenge for perceived slights from Apple, they could put some questions in the minds of older people wanting new Macs around the Christmas shopping season.
 
JohnPhamlore said:
As far as I have heard there is no official announcement so far by Intuit that Mac OS X Lion will be officially supported for TurboTax 2011.
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I just reinstalled TurboTax 2010 to amend my return and it worked just fine on Lion, so I assume the 2011 version will work.
 
TurboTax 2010 is officially UNSUPPORTED on Lion

Weaselboy said:
I just reinstalled TurboTax 2010 to amend my return and it worked just fine on Lion, so I assume the 2011 version will work.
Click to expand...

According to Intuit's website, TurboTax 2010 and earlier are officially UNSUPPORTED on Lion. It is true they may work but Intuit is making no guarantee of support.

http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/...launching-on-Mac-OS-X-10-7-Lion/SLN53460.html

People are continuing to use TurboTax 2010 and perhaps earlier on Mac OS X Lion because they have no choice. But recommending some older person who demands TurboTax 2011 support to buy a new Mac with Lion would simply be irresponsible if TurboTax 2011 is officially unsupported by Intuit.
 
I used to buy TurboTax on disk, but when they switched to web-based app, I started using that instead. It works well, and I save a copy of the return on my HDD (and back it up multiple ways), then next year it finds last year's return and I'm good to start.

The web-based version shouldn't have a problem with Lion since it runs under the browser.
 
I had a problem with the Turbotax 2011 CD with both 10.7.2 and 10.4.11 when trying to D/L updates. I reported it to Turbotax and started a thread here on the glitch downloading updates. The VP of Turbotax sales sent me a link to a downloadable Turbotax Premiere application. (From my thread here on MacRumors.) I did D/L it and the problem went away. He assured me that any future updates will D/L OK. ;)

So the program is now working on both Mac OS's now. (Of course if one didn't try to D/L the updates and go straight to the application it did work on the older application own the 2011 CD.) That said, usually there are many updates in this application.
 
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