Importing of prior year taxes

[MJAHsr]

Hello.

I'm doing multiple years of taxes at once. If I go back and edit a prior years return how do I get that info to carry over to the next years return if I've already started it?

[RobertG]

If you prepare a prior year return in TurboTax desktop/download, you can only carry that information forward into a new return.

For instance, if you complete and save 2017 and want to carry that information forward to 2018, you can't carry that information forward into an existing return.  

You can 'save as' an existing return with another name, so that you can save the information you entered; but when you carry forward information from a prior year TurboTax creates a new return.

[MJAHsr]

Thanks for your help. I confirmed it last night by loading the next year and doing the import then I edited the prior year and it does not update to the next year.  So if I have a NOL it seems I need to be 100% accurate on the first year to have the right carryover on the second.

[BillM223]

That's correct. Data carried forward from year to year only when you import the data from the previous year to the current year. Updating the previous year after that will not change the current year return.

For this reason, as you have seen, it is generally preferable to do your oldest return first.