There are a couple of possibilities for not being able to find prior returns that were prepared in Online TurboTax.
When you log into TurboTax for the first time this year, you may not yet have the Tax Home tab and Documents tab visible in the left menu column. If they're not there, then you may have to first proceed a little further by answering some preliminary screens and may even need to choose a 2020 product to get them to appear (you are not obligated to use it.) Once you have those tabs visible, here are a couple of ways to get to the prior returns:
You can click on Documents in the left menu and then a dropdown list of years should appear. Choose the year, and then way off to the right of the screen, you should see a link to download the PDF. If that didn't work, here's another method:
Go to the Tax Home. Scroll down the Tax Home page to the section "Your Tax Returns & Documents." Expand that section and choose the tax year you want. Then you can choose to "Download/print the PDF", or if you just need the 2019 AGI, then once you choose 2019 there should be a link to "View adjusted gross income (AGI.)"
If you do all that, but there's no evidence of prior returns in that section "Your Tax Returns & Documents", then you likely have multiple accounts and signed into the wrong one. Many people end up with multiple accounts.
You can have up to 5 accounts that use the same email address for notification purposes. A User ID may be an email address, but it doesn't have to be. It might be only part of an email address, or it can be anything at all.
To get a list of your User IDs, reset password, and recover account access, etc., you can use the tool at the link below. When using the Account Recovery tool, try using your phone number first. After that, if necessary, then run the tool on your email address(es) you can access.
NOTE: Before running the account recovery tool below, log out of all Intuit accounts including this user forum, or you might end up in a loop. Then clear your browser Internet cache, close your browser, then reopen it, and go to the link below. You may wish to copy this link so you can paste it into the new browser session.
https://myturbotax.intuit.com/account-recovery
If still no luck after running that on your phone number and email address(es) that you can access, here's another method:
Go back to the tool again, but this time leave the data field blank, scroll down a bit, then choose the small blue link that says "Try something else", and it will look you up by SSN and other parameters.
I desperately need a copy of last years (2019) tax return and it just disappeared off my computer. It makes me not trust using Turbo Tax in the future, There are other options, I trusted that my info was safe and secure on my computer. Not happy!!!!!
@tkal0827 wrote:
I desperately need a copy of last years (2019) tax return and it just disappeared off my computer. It makes me not trust using Turbo Tax in the future, There are other options, I trusted that my info was safe and secure on my computer. Not happy!!!!!
Using the TurboTax software on a Windows based personal computer, all saved PDF's and the tax data files are stored, by default, on the Documents directory in the TurboTax folder. If you changed where the files are stored you will have to search you hard drive and any network or virtual drives.
If you used the desktop CD/Download editions installed on your computer, the only copy of your tax data file and any PDF's will be on the computer where the return was created. TurboTax does not store online any returns completed using the desktop editions.
Or go to this IRS website for free federal tax return transcripts - https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript
For a fee of $43 you can get a complete federal tax return from the IRS by completing Form 4506 - http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506.pdf
I have the file but the 2019 turbo tax app is what disappeared so I cannot open it and don't wish to re buy the software
@tkal0827 wrote:
I have the file but the 2019 turbo tax app is what disappeared so I cannot open it and don't wish to re buy the software
Installed software on a personal computer does not just disappear. There has to be some action taken either by the user or from another unrelated application that would have removed the program along with the hundreds of files associated with the program.
IF you purchased the software from TurboTax contact TurboTax support and they can push a 2019 desktop software edition to your download account at no charge.
Use this website to contact TurboTax support during business hours - https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact/
Or -
Support can also be reached by messaging them on these pages https://www.facebook.com/turbotax/ and https://twitter.com/TeamTurboTax
Or -
Use this phone number and select TurboTax - 1-800-4-INTUIT (1-800-446-8848)