I went on TurboTax looking for the download and from what I can tell there is no more downloads, just doing your taxes online. Am I missing something? Will the downloadable version come later? Or is it all online now?
Isn’t this it?
Thanks. Everytime I tried it on their site they stuck me in the online form.
I just downloaded the Deluxe version (plus one state) from Amazon last week for $39.99.
Their website is confusing as all get out. They’re either incompetent or really trying to drive everyone to the online approach.
I subscribe to the download version. Have for decades. Every year they send me an email to go get my download. Which contains a [click here to download] link. If you click the link and log in, you’re at the online version. You need to log in a second time (!) at a different URL (with the same user ID & PW of course) to find the catalog of downloadable products.
They’re not far from having gotten their last annual renewal over this.
Bumping this thread – is downloading still available for Turbo Tax? I can’t seem to get to it this year to save my life.
ETA: Last year, I was able to use the link referenced in this thread. Didn’t work this year, unless you get the option after answering a bunch of threshold questions. I didn’t get that far.
Yes it is. Start here:
and scroll to the very bottom where there’s a section labeled “Desktop products”.
FYI, I cleverly found that page by going to https://www.intuit.com and clicking the button that says [turbotax]. No major internet sleuthing required.
What’s confusing is that “turbotax” is now the name of their web-only app. The desktop products are now named “turbotax advantage”. They are definitely trying to steer everyone towards the online version first and foremost.
I think the last itme I bought a Turbotax box (Canadian edition) it came without a CD, just download instructions and a key. So this year, as a registered user from last year, they offered me a purchase online - same deal, you buy a key and download the tax software.
'Zactly. It’s been a decade or more since I last got a CD for US turbotax.
The product as sold as a url to the generic download page and your personal paid-for unlock key to make it go.
Hmm, the version of TurboTax I bought at Costco this year did have a CD.
Thank you so much!
I get so fed up with their dumb website. Thanks for doing the navigating for me – I really appreciate it!
Was it the current edition?
Yes, I just used it to file my 2023 taxes.
Update: the desktop version of TurboTax that I got this year (for 2024) from a warehouse store like Costco—for the first time ever—did not come with a CD. The package only contained an insert with a license code. You then had to download the program from their website.
The reason I went ahead and bought it at BJs (a warehouse store like Costco) was because it was cheaper than getting it directly from TurboTax. The cost at BJs (and Costco) for the Deluxe version that I use with federal and state taxes was $55, and it included a $10 credit I could use for e-filing my state taxes. The same program purchased directly from TurboTax was $80, and it was $55 on Amazon with no credit included.
I also discovered that you can actually still get a CD from TurboTax (with no license code) for only $10. It did this for the 2024 version of TurboTax. The reason I like to have the CD on hand is in the event I want to be able to open up an old return from years ago.
(This actually happened to me last year. I needed to open up an old return from years ago to figure out how I handled the points on a refinance. The computer I had installed the software on was long gone, but I still had the CD for that version of TurboTax, and the license code still worked.)
I always print the PDF version of our tax returns, and add it to my data hoard. (and as protection against virus problems, I back up the “My Documents” (and music, and books, and install programs) to an offline device every so often.)
While it’s perhaps a convenience to be able to experiment (what if I had made $20,000 more last year? Put and extra $10,000 in retirement savings?) your actual tax return is pretty much complete and no need to change once submitted, except maybe minor corrections/amendments a few weeks later. I’d hate to accidentally overwrite the original submission.
Can you actually install the fairly old version on a new machine - I would have assumed the license code validation stops working at a certain point, if it has to validate against an online system? How long do they maintain license validation for, say, 2020? Plus - my Canadian version(s) regularly downloads updates when I start it up, as the tax people refine to clarify their forms and processes. I wonder how reliable the original CD version is?
I would be worried it would not update with the new brackets and laws. Suppose I need to amend my 2023 return? I don’t want the 2023 version using 2025 rules.
No, each tax season version - each year - has its own version of the program. But the tax people can never get their act together, they are clarifying rules and making changes based on new/retroactive tax laws etc. right up until tax time. Admittedly, most probably have no effect on the average person’s return. Not to mention corrections to the program as originally produced. So like those periodic Windows updates, the tax program downloads updates. (It checks every time I pen it).
Or at least, Canadian tax authorities (CRA) are doing that. I’m sure the IRS is far more efficient, organized and professional.
So the program as set on the CD in November or early December may not contain the fully correct program for that year as used at submission time.
At least in the US versions of TT there is no concern about this.
I have several versions installed on my machine. They each live in different folders that TT chose to keep them apart. The file extensions for TT’s data files are different each year too. So the 2025 program won’t readily open a 2023 file for editing and vice versa. Last of all, if you force it to open an off-year file, it’ll look at the contents, say “I’m not the version for that year, you need this other version”. The year number is embedded inside their file format too.
There is nothing foolproof, and especially not with computers. Because humans are so very excellent at being fools. But TT tries real hard to avoid stupids like that.
Right, I do the same thing.
This is why I like to be able to open an old return in TurboTax. Or if I find a mistake, and I wonder how long the mistake has persisted. Or if I want to look up what I entered in an old return (like the mortgage points I mentioned upthread).
That is certainly a concern, but I figure I have a better chance of this working with a CD on hand. Looking at the TurboTax website, they only have downloadable versions of the desktop software going back to 2021.
I have CDs going back to 2004 (which is certainly overkill, and likely wouldn’t install on a new computer, but whatever).
Yes, I too have the yearly versions of TurboTax installed (updated to the point that year where the return was submitted) as old as the computer itself. (admittedly, only 2021 - but i have the older computer too, so to 2015) I have the PDF’s going back to 2010 in my accumulating “My Documents” and backed up on a removable drive.