How do I access my 2018 returns

[aarontw]

Hello, I need to access my 2018 returns, the problem I am faced with is that there are 0 options to do anything besides complete my 2020 returns when I log in to turbotax. 

How am I supposed to go to "my documents" or anything along those lines? I've tried using search, and they have a handy, built in tool for 2019 returns, but not 2018.

Does anyone know how to help with this? Thank you 🙂 

[mesquitebean · Accepted solution]

If this is your first time back in Online TurboTax this year, you likely haven't gone far enough into the interview yet to have tabs in the left menu column.  Read all of this answer which includes an image.     As for the disclosure screen you provided, I personally would not agree to the disclosure screen, but that's up to you to make your own decision after reading it.  It is not required to prepare a tax return or to access prior returns.  There should be a way to decline the sharing of your tax return info with Intuit and its subsidiaries on that screen or the next screen, if desired. 

You might find when you go through the steps below that you have more than one account, but I'll leave info below on how to troubleshoot that if necessary.

I assume your 2018 return was prepared in Online TurboTax.  Any return prepared in desktop software (CD/download) will not be in an Online account.

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 (see image below).    If those tabs are not there in the menu, 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, 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.    See this image:

.

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".

If you do all that, but there's no evidence of the prior return when you arrive in the 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 if you can still access it.   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 you can still access 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.

[mesquitebean · Accepted solution]

I assume your 2018 return was prepared in Online TurboTax.  Any return prepared in desktop software (CD/download) will not be in an Online account.

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 (see image below).    If those tabs are not there in the menu, 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, 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.    See this image:

.

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".

If you do all that, but there's no evidence of the prior return when you arrive in the 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 if you can still access it.   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 you can still access 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.

[mesquitebean]

@aarontw   My image didn't show up initially, but it's there now.  If you were emailed the answer, it may not have appeared.

[aarontw]

Wow, what an incredible response. I so so so appreciate this and I hope the other people that see this post in the future will too. Thank you so much!

I've marked best answer, will confirm if this works soon, and then come back, for now, I think it is the solution. Thank you!

[aarontw]

I went in and checked, it worked! Or maybe I logged into my different account. Not sure 😁

[mesquitebean]

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@aarontw wrote:

I went in and checked, it worked! Or maybe I logged into my different account. Not sure 😁

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Great news!  I'm glad it worked for you.  Good luck.

[Jroan]

how do i access my 2018 taxes.

[JotikaT2]

Please see the following link for instructions.  

Steps to access a prior year return