You should be able to save your .tax2016 file to your computer without paying for the purpose of transferring from online to desktop. I have had many customers do it with no issues. Here is a more expansive set of instructions - make sure you are logging into your account and using the My Account and Tools option, not trying to download from another area. Follow the steps below -
- Log into your TurboTax Online Account and select Take Me to My Return (you must click this button)
- In the blue banner at the top, click on My Account and select Tools from the dropdown menu
- In the small box that populates, click on Save your 2016 return to your Computer (try to save to an easy-to-find location such as My Documents or Desktop)
- This will download a .tax2016 file to your computer - make note of where that file is saved to on your computer
- Sign out of TurboTax Online and, if you haven't done so already, install TurboTax 2016 CD/Download. Windows | Mac
- Important: If you Online return already contains one or more states, you must install those states in your desktop program also; otherwise, you will receive errors when you attempt to open your return
- Once installed, choose File > Open Tax Return.
- Browse to where you saved the .tax2016 file in step 3, select it, and then click Open.
- Choose File > Save.
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(Optional) Once you are satisfied that your online returns transferred over properly, you can clear your Online return. Note: This will remove your data online, so I would recommend waiting until you have at least filed your return before clearing any online data, but the choice is yours.
