- Troubleshoot Transferring from a Prior-Year Return
Troubleshoot Transferring from a Prior-Year Return
If you're having trouble transferring prior-year information to TurboTax, see the tips below.
- Transfer from a prior-year version
- Transfer from the same main form
- Make a copy of your 2007 tax return
- Program corruption
- Clear your entire return and start over (TurboTax Online)
Note: Transferring differs from importing. When you import, you bring information into TurboTax from financial software, such as Quicken or QuickBooks, or from participating financial institutions, such as your brokerage firm or payroll provider. See Importing into TurboTax.TurboTax only transfers information from the previous tax year. For example, you can transfer 2007 data to TurboTax 2008, but you can't transfer 2006 tax data to TurboTax 2008.
TurboTax only transfers information from a return that uses the same main form. For example, you cannot transfer data from a corporate (Form 1120) return into a partnership (Form 1065) or individual (Form 1040) return.
You can, however, transfer data between 1040, 1040A, and 1040EZ individual returns.
Use your TurboTax 2007 software to save your prior-year return with a new name. Then transfer the newly named file.
Follow these steps:
- Close TurboTax 2008, and then launch TurboTax 2007.
- From the File menu, choose Open Tax Return.
- Find last year's tax data file, select it, and then choose Open.
- On the File menu, choose Save As. Save your return on your computer using a new file name. (We recommend saving your file in the My Documents folder so it will automatically appear in the list of returns you can transfer in TurboTax 2008.)
- Close TurboTax 2007.
- Launch TurboTax 2008 and try transferring again, using the the return you saved in the previous step.
Note: If you receive the message Unable to read data when closing last year's version of TurboTax, your data file is corrupted and you will not be able to transfer it.In some cases, reinstalling your prior-year TurboTax software can resolve transfer issues.
If problems persist, reinstall both last year's version and this year's version of TurboTax. Then, try transferring again.
If your information was not transferred automatically, clearing and starting your return over will re-start the automatic transfer process.
To clear your federal and any state returns:
- Sign in to TurboTax Online 2008.
- Once you're connected, you should be on the Home tab (the "Welcome back" screen).
- In the We can help you... section at the bottom of the page, click the Clear your 2008 return and start over link.
- Click the Yes, Clear My Return button.
- On the next screen, click Continue.
