switching from turbotax online to desktop

[TAXLEGION]

Seriously.

Cannot switch from Online to Desktop TurboTax?

You were quick to allow me to import my desktop file from 2022 so I would purchase your online 2023 software.

Criminal.

[TurboTaxAniqua]

@kennethandrew We appreciate your feedback. You can switch between the desktop and online versions, but for formatting reasons, you are unable to import the online version from the previous year into the desktop version.

[kennethandrew]

Thanks but this has been reported for quite some time now.  If I had known when I tried the online version that I could only move one way, I would have reconsidered.  Now I have extra time and cost due to a shortfall with your programming decisions.  If it can be programmed one way, it surely can be programmed the other way.  I wish I had seen this messaging before I moved forward and cost myself so much time and aggravation.  Intuit sure does nothing to warn you of this prior to making the move.  And after months of being reported, nobody is even acknowledging it is being worked on....that's a real shame and a black mark on what used to be my favourite tax software!  

[TurboTaxBrenda]

Thank you for your feedback.

[kkaarrsstteenn]

It’s unreasonable that users aren’t given the flexibility to switch between product versions, especially when the switch was forced upon us due to technical issues beyond our control. Given this ongoing problem, I have decided to return the desktop version to Costco and hope they will accept my return. This experience has left me questioning TurboTax’s reliability and commitment to its long-time users.

[TurboTaxAniqua]

@kkaarrsstteenn Unfortunately, you can't import your previous tax year's data from TurboTax Online to TurboTax Desktop. TurboTax Online can't export anything other than a PDF file, and TurboTax Desktop can't open PDF files. Only .ttxx files

If you have purchased a wrong product, you can submit an online refund request and purchase a correct version directly from TurboTax website.

[sp89]

Last year, my husband mistakenly purchased the online version of TurboTax from Costco due to unclear labeling on the packaging. We used it to file our 2023 taxes, and we were very dissatisfied with the experience. We’ve been using TurboTax for at least 10 years, but it became clear that the online version does not have feature-parity with the desktop version. Having access to the forms is a no-brainier IMO. This year, we naturally decided to return to the desktop version, especially considering both products are priced the same. However, we were shocked to learn that it’s not possible to switch back to the desktop version. This is the final straw.

As a developer, I can confidently say that the inability to migrate from the online version to the desktop version is not an oversight—it's a business decision. The fact that this feature hasn’t been developed after the online version has been available for so long makes it clear that it’s a deliberate strategy. When a moderator claims that feedback has been passed on to the software development team, don’t expect any real progress on this issue. They’re not actively working on it.

This year, before starting our 2024 income taxes we considered switching to a Canadian-owned tax software product, given the current political climate. The only reason we stuck with TurboTax was because of the import feature, which allowed us to avoid starting over from scratch. Now that we see we’ll have to start fresh anyway, we will ditch TurboTax and move on.