How can I re-create my 2020 year return?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
January 31, 2022
3 replies
18 views

I use/have the CD version. I had a hard drive failure and lost my Turbo tax return Data (tax year 2020) on my computer.

Is it possible to re-create everything using my Turbotax CD? (I have a paper print-out of everything). Then make turbo tax appear the return was filed, without triggering/generating an actual electronic second copy to the IRS?

I need to re-create it first. Then file a correcting/amended return for 2020. I could do this on paper, but I want to electronically store this as I do other years?   I tried to retrieve it off the Turbo Tax site. But it is not there. I assume because I filed using the CD version of Turbotax I have?

Can someone post/send me instructions on how to accomplish this?   Thank You!

DawnC

Employee Tax Expert

Yes, if you have a paper copy of everything and you have the 2020 TurboTax software on your PC, you can re-create the 2020 tax return you filed. And yes, if you use the desktop software, your return is not stored on the TurboTax server. You would have to have saved the return to your PC, a thumb drive, or a cloud location that you can access.

If you have your 2019 tax file, or even a PDF file of it, you can start a new 2020 tax return and transfer in the 2019 return to avoid having to type everything in again. If you don't have the 2019 return, you will have to enter everything from scratch, but it can be done. Once the return is the way it was filed, you can go through the File By Mail steps to show the return as filed. However, your original e-filing information won't be a part of the newly created return. You should have received e-mails when the return was submitted and accepted by the IRS. But it will show as filed. When you are done, save a copy to your PC and to somewhere else.......in case you have another hardware failure. 😞

How do I transfer last year's return into the 2021 TurboTax software for Mac? This is for the current year, but you can use the same instructions if you have any copy of 2019 to transfer in to the 2020 software before you start recreating it. But you don't have to have this, but not having it will require retyping everything.

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rickbeachAuthor

Level 2

Thank you for the details you supplied.

If I do the FILE BY MAIL as suggested to recreate the original return. Can I then "e-file" when completing the amended return in Turbotax for that year? (Sent a late 1099). Which I have not done yet?

Or will I have to do a FILE BY MAIL for the amended return, then actually mail the paper amended return to the IRS?

Thanks so much!