Sorry but yes you need the proper year program installed to open that year tax file. Each year is separate. All tax places are that way. You have to buy a new program each year. There are too many changes each year. You should have each year saved as both the .taxyyyy file and as a PDF file. Then you don't need the program installed to view your return.
Otherwise if you don't want to install each year you could try the TaxPrinter service to convert a .tax file to pdf at https://www.taxprinter.com
They might be expensive and it is probably not safe to email tax returns back and forth. They are not related to Turbo Tax. I don't know if they can do State.
