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Level 2

Solved

Apple Silicon Support in TT 2024

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 4, 2025
19 replies
347 views

Last I heard, TurboTax does *not* natively support Apple Silicon Macs, the *only* kind they now sell. No, I don't want to download Rosetta. I remember seeing a System Requirements page that listed Intel Mac as a requirement, but don't see that here: https://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/cd-download/tta-system-requirements. Does anyone know if they've addressed the issue for new Macs?

A sure-fire way to see if they support the Apple Silicon architecture is to find the Turbotax app and executable, and in a Terminal window run the 'file' utility on it, looking to see if it supports the 'arm64' architecture. For instance, this command demonstrates that Quicken supports both 'arm64' and 'x86_64' (Intel 64 bit chips):

> file /Applications/Quicken.app/Contents/MacOS/Quicken
/Applications/Quicken.app/Contents/MacOS/Quicken: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64] [arm64:Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64]
/Applications/Quicken.app/Contents/MacOS/Quicken (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
/Applications/Quicken.app/Contents/MacOS/Quicken (for architecture arm64😞 Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64

I'm thinking if the Quicken folks can figure it out the TurboTax developers should be able to do it, but the System Requirements statement isn't explicit about that.

Best answer by carltonroe

Looks to me like still not Apple Silicon, since in the System Report / Applications, it shows "Intel". Just unacceptable after all these years. You can really the effects in the sluggish performance of the program.

TurboTax 2024:

Version: 2024.r17.020

Obtained from: Identified Developer

Last Modified: 2/6/25, 04:55

Kind: Intel

Signed by: Developer ID Application: Intuit Inc. (G4SSPX3CBL), Developer ID Certification Authority, Apple Root CA

Location: /Applications/TurboTax 2024.app

baldietax

Level 12

I am running TT 2024 on Mac Mini M4 with Mac OS 15, seems fine. Note Mac OS 12 and below no longer supported that's probably a bigger issue for aging Intel Macs that stop at older OS levels.

JackOfToadHallAuthor

Level 2

Thanks for the reply, but did you ever install Rosetta? (Desired answer: "no".)

Did you try the Terminal command 'file' I mentioned?

I bought the Desktop product a couple of years ago and found it unusable and not returnable. Trying to avoid that situation again.

baldietax

Level 12

No Rosetta. Hard to know what issue you had previously, but I jumped from 2015 Intel iMac/Macbook on MacOS 11/12, to Mac Mini M4 for 2024 so I don't have extensive experience running TT on Apple silicon in prior years. Here's the output of file command:

/Applications/TurboTax 2024.app/Contents/MacOS/TurboTax 2024: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

Probably the bigger issue for folks is going to be MacOS version compatibility, TT 2024 is only supported on MacOS v13 onwards and a lot of older Macs from 2015/6 or so will be starting to age out of OS upgrades needed to run TT.

If you've not purchased it yet check prices on Amazon it's nicely discounted there at the moment.

carltonroeAnswer

Level 2

TurboTax 2024:

Version: 2024.r17.020

Obtained from: Identified Developer

Last Modified: 2/6/25, 04:55

Kind: Intel

Signed by: Developer ID Application: Intuit Inc. (G4SSPX3CBL), Developer ID Certification Authority, Apple Root CA

Location: /Applications/TurboTax 2024.app

ukhbdf0nRKxXukhbdf0nRKxXukhbdf

Level 2

At this point we should be submitting feedback to: https://investors.intuit.com/corporate-governance/conduct-and-guidelines/contact-the-board/default.aspx. This is embarrassing product quality and flat out refusal to change.

Intuit and their software developers should feel shameful for releasing this.

TurboTax 2025 on macOS is still Intel-only, pushing Apple Silicon users onto Rosetta. Apple’s one‑page playbook for Universal binaries has existed since 2020. This results in slower launches, higher memory usage, and avoidable issues on modern Macs.

Xcode 12.2+ includes arm64 in Standard Architectures and will output a Universal app for release builds. Intuit, please ship a Universal build and publish a timeline.

Apple has documentation for Universal binary, it is straightforward and easy to follow....

Apple’s official guidance explains how to build a Universal macOS binary that runs natively on both Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel (x86_64). In Xcode 12.2 and later, Standard Architectures already include arm64, and release builds produce Universal binaries when projects use standard settings. Apple also states you can build Universal on either an Intel or Apple Silicon Mac.

Apple’s companion ‘Porting your macOS apps to Apple silicon’ document notes that opening your project in Xcode 12+ and doing a clean build will create a Universal binary automatically if you haven’t overridden architectures. If you use custom build systems, add arm64 and verify. This is a routine workflow, not an R&D project.

For non‑Xcode workflows, developers can build arm64 and x86_64 artifacts separately and combine them with the lipo tool into a single Universal binary—widely documented and used across the macOS ecosystem.

Sources!

Building a universal macOS binary — Apple Developer Documentation

Porting your macOS apps to Apple silicon — Apple Developer Documentation

https://amazingalgorithms.com/commands/lipo-macos/

TAXHELLAGAIN

Level 5

The data file for the Mac version and the data file for the Windows version is exactly the same. This tells me that the development has been parallel. Both the Windows binary and Mac binary are Intel based. If it was as easy as simply recompiling, I am sure they would have already done it. Since they are not even making binaries for new Microsoft Surface Pro's that have the Qualcomm ARM chip, the odds of an Apple Silicon binary is almost nil. It still runs on all Macs currently, but not all Windows Machines. Pathetic.

TAXHELLAGAIN

Level 5

To make this problem worse, if that's possible. You can't run TurboTax with Parallels either. Even worse, you can't run TurboTax in Windows on the Newest Microsoft Surface computers. So, there are new Windows computers that already will not run TurboTax 2025. So, guess what the odds of having TurboTax working on any Desktop computer for the 2027 tax year?

SoVeryClose

Level 2

Ugh. I bought desktop 2025 Premier and never noticed anywhere that it was Intel only until I went to install it and got prompted to install Rosetta. Well, I procrastinated on my taxes so now I kinda have no choice but to do this. But man, that's so ugly.

I agree with earlier posts in this thread that it shouldn't be that hard to produce a universal binary version. It seems clear they're trying to push us to the online version of TurboTax, which I want to do even less than I want to install Rosetta.

For tax year 2026 I guess I'll be looking for other options. What a shame.

TAXHELLAGAIN

Level 5

Both windows and macOS versions of TurboTax use the same file formats, this suggests that both apps are developed with the same IDE. I think if it were as easy as checking off a checkbox they would have done this 5 years ago. It is just incredibly weird that Intuit is being totally silent on this subject! Internal memos suggest that they may discontinue desktop software for both macOS and windows. Only a minority of people use the desktop version, whether we’re talking about Windows or macOS; the vast majority of TurboTax customers use the online version.
It was much easier to develop code for both windows and Mac when we still had Intel processors, exclusively. Now that Intel is going to disappear completely from Windows machines and macOS, the landscape is totally different.

baldietax

Level 12

Update on universal binary support below from Intuit tech team - they are working on it for TY26, and at least TY25 for backwards support; TY24 support is TBD

Thanks @Monikak11

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/re-will-turbotax-2022-home-business-work-on-a-mac-m4-with-the-tahoe-os/01/3908399#M1454249

zenmster

Level 6

Hi does this mean i can ignore the Apple System Update warning that says TT will not work with the most recent Apple System Update? I hope so because I have to use TT2024 for an amended return situation.

baldietax

Level 12

yes the pop-up warning "Support Ending for Intel-based Apps" is a preemptive warning that it won't work with a "future" release of macOS which will be Mac OS 28 in about 18 months so you can ignore the warning for now (but Intuit can't ignore it any longer...).