Question

How can I access past returns if I'm not a returning TurboTax customer?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
March 13, 2025
2 replies
0 views

When I go to Products, there is a link to access my 2020 and 2021 taxreturns but it forces me to sign into a new product

TurboTax Online

X

xmasbaby0

If you have not used TurboTax for your past year returns, TT cannot find your old returns. TurboTax only stores returns that have been prepared using online TurboTax software.

You can get a free transcript from the IRS or for a fee of $30, an actual copy of your tax return.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript

**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**

M

mesquitebean

@ ematalon123 wrote:
When I go to Products, there is a link to access my 2020 and 2021 taxreturns but it forces me to sign into a new product

This info below is only if you previously used Online TurboTax for the past years you seek. Any returns prepared in desktop TurboTax will not be in online account.

So if you used Online TurboTax for the 2020 and 2021 returns, the steps below tell how to (hopefully) get them. If you don't intend to use Online TurboTax this year, you don't have to purchase anything, but you have to "pretend" and proceed like you are going to use it, and once far enough into the questioning, you'll be able to get the past returns, as long as you are in the right account. See my full steps below, which may or may not be more info than you need, but you'll at least have it.

If you have not yet started a 2024 online return:

Sign in to your account. What you see next depends on whether or not you have already started a 2024 return in that account. If your left column menu is minimal, and does not have a Tax Home tab displayed, that would imply you have not started preparing a 2024 return in that account. If you haven't yet started a return, it will start asking you some questions. Answer those preliminary questions (you don't actually have to prepare a return), and then when you are far enough into the process the left menu column will change, and you'll then see a Tax Home option. Do not click the Documents tab. Instead, click on Tax Home. Then on the Tax Home screen, scroll way down to the bottom to "Your Tax Returns & Documents". Expand that section and choose the past year you want. If your past returns are not shown there, then you likely have multiple accounts and signed into the wrong one. I'll tell you below how to troubleshoot.

If you have already started a 2024 return:

Log in, and if you've already started a 2024 return in that account, then it may already open at the Tax Home. If not, click the Tax Home tab in the left column menu. Do not use the Documents tab. At the Tax Home scroll down and expand "Your Tax Returns & Documents." If the past returns are not there, see the steps below.

If you do all that and can't find the past return, here's how to look for multiple accounts:

You can have up to 5 accounts that use the same email address for notification purposes. A User ID may be an email address, but it doesn't have to be. It might be only part of an email address, or it can be anything at all.

To get a list of your User IDs, reset password, and recover account access, etc., you can use the tool at the link below. When using the Account Recovery tool, try using your phone number first if you can still access it. After that, if necessary, then run the tool on your email address(es) you can access.

NOTE: Before running the account recovery tool below, log out of all Intuit accounts including this user forum, or you might end up in a loop. Then clear your browser Internet cache, close your browser, then reopen it, and go to the link below. You may wish to copy this link so you can paste it into the new browser session.

https://myturbotax.intuit.com/account-recovery

If still no luck after running that on your phone number you can still access and email address(es) that you can access, here's another method:

Go back to the tool again, but this time leave the data field blank, scroll down a bit, then choose the small blue link that says "Try something else", and it will look you up by other parameters.