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January 27, 2023
Question

TT 2022 Home and Business will not import previous year's return

  • January 27, 2023
  • 23 replies
  • 0 views

I have used TT for at least 20 years and thoroughly enjoy the application.  One of the features I particularly appreciate is my ability to import data from the previous year’s return.  Unfortunately, after purchasing and installing the 2022 Home and Business desktop (PC) version, I repeatedly receive an error message indicating that the import (from last year's PDF file) was unsuccessful.  I have reached out to Intuit customer support team.  As it turns out, the lady that I reached quickly realized that her knowledge related to using the program to deal with tax issues, and not what appears to be a serious technical issue with the application itself.  After some time, she was able to contact another agent whose expertise apparently focused on such issues. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that I could not speak directly with the latter agent, nor could she even see my screen!  The first agent had to act as a “middleman” and literally convey information back and forth to the other agent via chat.  Despite these issues, the agent tried her hardest but the steps recommended by the other agent failed to resolve the program, raising my concern about needing to invest hours of work to manually input last’s years data.  I was advised that the second agent had escalated the issue but to date I have not received any follow-up.  I would note the following facts:

 

  1. The PDF file was created by TT 2021.  It still opens and functions perfectly in Adobe Acrobat.
  2. The second agent suggestion that I rename and save the file with a different name failed to resolve the issue.
  3. I opted to uninstall and reinstall TT 2022 but continue to receive the same error message after the reinstall.  Two days of additional updates also failed to be helpful in regard to this problem.
  4. Hoping that I might be able to resolve the problem by re-installing TT 2021 and then creating a “.tax2021” file in addition to a new PDF, I located my Amazon order for last year’s program, but cannot download it unless I repurchase that version – which obviously makes no sense. 

I have written the VP's of customer success and technical matters but have not yet heard back from them either.  I am very concerned that I may have to spend many hours manually inputting last year's data.  Might anyone have any other suggestions?

 

Thanks

23 replies

Employee
January 27, 2023

@ASF01 wrote:

Might anyone have any other suggestions?


In your post, you made several references to importing from a PDF.

 

Since you used TurboTax to prepare your 2021 return, you should have a .tax2021 file and that is the file that should be used to transfer your 2021 return into the 2022 program.

 

Do you have your .tax2021 file saved anywhere (on your computer or elsewhere)?

ASF01Author
January 27, 2023

TT specifically states that when importing a previous year's return, "We support files from Turbotax (.tax2021 or .pdf), HR Block at home (.pdf) and TaxAct (.pdf)".   As such, once my return is filed, I have typically uninstalled TT (for that year) as well as that year's .taxyear file.  I would note that in the following year, after installing that year's TT program, I have always been able to import the previous year's date from the PDF created by TT.  Unfortunately, as before, I did not save the .tax2021 file assuming that I would be able to once again import from the previous year's PDF as I had in the past.  

ASF01Author
January 27, 2023

As I noted in my initial post, I was hoping that I could get a copy of TT 2021 and see if the program from the same year might allow me to re-open the return directly from the PDF and then re-create the .tax2021 file.  Unfortunately, it is only available for sale.  As I mentioned, I wrote to several members of the Intuit executive team in hopes I might get a copy of that program so I could see if this alternative worked.  I have not heard back from them.

Carl11_2
Employee
February 15, 2023

TurboTax will only import "personal data" from a PDF file. it will not import any information past the "My Info" screen. You need to be importing from the .tax2021 file. Not the PDF file.

 

February 15, 2023

Delete.

Carl11_2
Employee
February 15, 2023

I am having the exact same issue (but with TT Premier) with not being able to import last year's TT pdf file.

Again, you can not import anything beyond the "My Info" data from a PDF. You never could. You *need* to import from the .tax2021 file if you want to import everything.

 

February 17, 2023

I too am having the same issues.  It will not import the asset and depreciation.  I am not using the pdf. I am using the same file as I have always used and the process just ends after I select the file needed.  It imports nothing not even the personal info.  The pdf version at least imports the personal info.

 

February 18, 2023
i too, have used tt for over twenty years, and in the past three, it has gone downhill catastrophically.. my experience is also inability to import previous tax file that i clearly see, and open from the desktop.. intuit has become a pita, and pos.. switching to TaxSlayer after this year (as i've already spent 70plus for this crap, and i'm halfway thru manually inputting).. good luck with their customer support; or lack there of..
February 22, 2023

Doesn't work for me either.  No schedule info, no prior year tax info. The only thing that imported was name and address.  First time in 25 years this hasn't worked.  Obviously they haven't fixed the issue.  Must have laid off that staff so no one knows how to fix the links.

BrandiLO1
February 22, 2023

@hibschman1 Please click here for steps to contact customer care to report this issue and for further assistance.

March 4, 2023

I think this may be that Windows set all your PDF's to open with MicroSoft Edge go in to your computer and set Adobe to be your default to open PDF's

ASF01Author
March 4, 2023

Unfortunately not the case.  You probably missed my notation in my first post in this chain.  On my computer,  PDF files are associated with Adobe Acrobat.  All of the PDFs I have created with Turbotax (after filling is complete) open perfectly in Adobe Acrobat.  The issue is that last year's PDF -- created in the exact same way as all the others -- opens in Adobe Acrobat without any problem but cannot be imported into Turbotax 2022.

March 6, 2023

I have exactly the same issue. Although TT clearly states that it supports (.tax2021 & .pdf), it fails to load my 2021 tax return pdf file. This is the big bug of the TurboTax, or if not, that is cheating customers. Most time I only save .pdf file for reference.

Carl11_2
Employee
March 6, 2023

When importing from a PDF, the TurboTax program will only import your personal information (as shown under the My Info tab) and your AGI. That's pretty much it, and that's the way it's been since import from PDF was implemented several years ago. There was the "claim" that future versions would import more. But that has yet to come to fruition.

 

March 7, 2023

Good luck . I cannot even access the software support and and I am having problems with not being able to input information. I suggest you bite the bulle and manually input your data. the support version of this program is not very helpful or supportive.

March 8, 2023

Is this a bug that is only present in TT 2022 Home and Business?  I have been a TT user for decades, most of those years as a Deluxe version user.  I have never had any issues with TT recognizing the existence of my prior year file and loading the data up when starting the next year's return.

 

2022 is my first year using the Home and Business version.  I have my .tax2021 file saved on the same laptop where 2022 Home and Business in loaded.  However, 2022 Home and Business is not recognizing the existence of that 2021 Deluxe file.  If I purchased the 2022 Deluxe version, would I have the same problem?

VolvoGirl
Employee
March 8, 2023

I have Home & Business and it transferred from 2021 no problem.  The version doesn't matter.  There's probably something wrong with your 2021 file.

 

Here's an idea.  Do you still have 2021 installed?  Try opening 2021 program and see if you can get your 2021 return to show up in it.  Go to FILE - OPEN.  Then save it again with a name and place you can find.  Go to File - Save As.