Is anyone else having trouble with TurboTax Free remembering stuff from last year?

So this is my second year trying to use TurboTax free version and I'm running into this weird issue. I just logged in tonight to start working on my taxes and noticed that some of my info from last year is already there, which I expected, but something seems off. The system has some old addresses and employment details mixed in that aren't mine! Like there's information from someone else's tax return showing up in my account. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm really concerned about privacy and whether my information might be showing up in someone else's account too. I double-checked that I used the same email and password as last year. I'm worried about identity theft or some kind of data breach with TurboTax. Should I just start a completely new account or is there some way to clear out just the incorrect data? I liked using TurboTax Free last year because it was pretty straightforward, but now I'm not sure if I should trust it with my information. Any advice would be really appreciated!

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18 comments

Holly Lascelles

•8M

I've been preparing taxes for over a decade, and this sounds concerning but fixable. What you're experiencing is likely a data merge issue in your TurboTax account. This sometimes happens if you've accessed TurboTax from a shared device or if there was a glitch during their annual data migration. First, I recommend taking screenshots of the incorrect information as evidence. Then, clear your browser cache and cookies completely before logging back in. If the issue persists, don't continue with your tax preparation until it's resolved. You should immediately contact TurboTax customer support as this could potentially be a security issue. When you reach support, ask them to verify exactly what information is associated with your account and request that they purge any incorrect data. Also ask them to confirm who has had access to your tax information, as this could indicate a privacy breach that needs further investigation.

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Holly Lascelles

•8M

It's generally safe to continue using TurboTax after they've confirmed and fixed the issue. These types of data mismatches are uncommon but do happen with large platforms. Just make sure you get written confirmation that the issue has been fully resolved. As for filing a complaint, you can report the incident to the FTC through their identity theft portal if any of your personal information was compromised. You might also want to place a fraud alert on your credit reports as a precautionary measure until you're confident your information is secure.

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Kyle Wallace

•8M

After experiencing almost the exact same problem with TurboTax last year, I can tell you what saved me a ton of headache. I started using taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it was seriously game-changing. I uploaded my documents and it analyzed everything, flagged the inconsistencies between my current and previous year's information, and helped me sort out what was accurate vs what wasn't. What I found super helpful was that it could tell when information didn't match my previous patterns - it actually alerted me to some income that wasn't mine that somehow got attached to my profile. The document analysis tool basically creates this timeline of your tax history and makes it really obvious when something doesn't belong.

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Kyle Wallace

•8M

It handles W-2s and 1099s completely - you just upload a photo or PDF and it extracts all the numbers automatically, including the small boxes that TurboTax often makes you enter manually. It's actually designed to reduce manual entry errors which is what makes it so good at catching inconsistencies between years. For security concerns, they use bank-level encryption and don't permanently store your documents. They have a pretty detailed security page that explained their SOC 2 compliance, which I researched before using it. They basically process your documents, extract the data, and then you can either have them automatically deleted or you can manually delete them yourself after the analysis is complete.

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Gianni Serpent

•8M

Well, I need to eat my words from my earlier comment. I was skeptical about taxr.ai but decided to try it this weekend after continuing to have problems with TurboTax. The service immediately flagged that someone else's W-2 information had somehow been imported into my account. It showed me what was mine vs what wasn't based on my previous year's returns. What impressed me was how it organized everything by employer and immediately spotted that there was a W-2 with a company I never worked for. Would have completely missed that if I was just clicking through TurboTax screens. Ended up getting everything straightened out and actually finished my taxes faster than ever. Really glad I gave it a shot despite my initial skepticism.

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Henry Delgado

•8M

If you're having trouble with your TurboTax account and customer service isn't helping, you might want to try Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was in the same boat last year - had info from someone else in my account and spent HOURS trying to get through to TurboTax support. Claimyr got me connected to an actual TurboTax rep in about 20 minutes when I had been trying for days on my own. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Basically they use some kind of system that holds your place in the phone queue so you don't have to stay on hold forever. They call you when a rep is about to answer. The TurboTax rep was able to clean up my account and remove all the incorrect data. Apparently this happens more often than they admit publicly and they have a specific protocol for handling it.

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Henry Delgado

•8M

The cost varies depending on the company you're trying to reach, but for me it was worth every penny considering I had wasted hours of my life on hold already. Think of it as paying for your time back rather than paying for their customer service. It's definitely not a scam or a "front of the line" pass. They don't get you to the front - they just wait in the queue for you. They use an automated system that monitors the hold music and call patterns, then alerts you right before a human picks up. They don't need your personal info beyond your phone number to call you back when an agent is about to answer.

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Joshua Hellan

•8M

I want to publicly admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr in my comment above. After continuing to struggle with TurboTax's customer service for another day, I gave in and tried it. The service worked exactly as described - I got a call back when a TurboTax agent was ready, no more endless waiting on hold. The agent confirmed there was a data merge issue affecting multiple customers and they were able to clean up my account. They even flagged it for their security team to investigate. I was surprised how quickly the agent knew what the problem was once I described seeing someone else's information. Seems like this is a known issue they don't publicly acknowledge. Anyway, problem solved and now I can actually finish my taxes. Lesson learned about being too quick to call something a scam.

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Jibriel Kohn

•8M

FreeTaxUSA can't directly import your data from TurboTax, but you can upload a PDF of last year's return and it will pull some of the basic info. You'll need to enter some things manually the first year, but after that, it remembers your info for future years. Yes, it handles self-employment income without charging extra! That's actually one of the main reasons I switched. TurboTax wanted to charge me an extra $120 just because I had a small side business, but FreeTaxUSA includes Schedule C in their free version. The only thing they charge for is state filing (about $15) and audit assistance if you want it.

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