Turbo Tax & Tax Cut share tax payers' info

[Msmith]

In the past I used Tax Cut (HR Block) to do my tax. Last night I installed Turbo Tax. In the first page it asked me if I wanted to import info from Tax Cut. I clicked yes and lo and behold, all my personal info are transferred to Turbo Tax page.

So these companies can share my info to each other. What else could happen?

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Turbotax is using the locally saved file from Tax Cut to import.

[Fish]

More than likely it found your old information from the Tax Cut program you installed on your computer in the past....

[rageeumr]

http://www.outcastweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/tin-foil-hat.jpg

[Chazno]

In the past I used Tax Cut (HR Block) to do my tax. Last night I installed Turbo Tax. In the first page it asked me if I wanted to import info from Tax Cut. I clicked yes and lo and behold, all my personal info are transferred to Turbo Tax page.

So these companies can share my info to each other. What else could happen?

What info did you supply for them to import? It likely it just found you saved tax cut file from last year (on your local computer) and imported the data from it. The companies are competitors so it wouldn't make sense that they share data, not to mention the legal concerns. It sounds more like Tax Cut needs to encrypt their data files so Turbo tax can't make it so easy for people to switch.

[Msmith]

What info did you supply for them to import? It likely it just found you saved tax cut file from last year (on your local computer) and imported the data from it. The companies are competitors so it wouldn't make sense that they share data, not to mention the legal concerns. It sounds more like Tax Cut needs to encrypt their data files so Turbo tax can't make it so easy for people to switch.

The ss#, birthdays, names of my entire household.

[Rain Man]

What info did you supply for them to import? It likely it just found you saved tax cut file from last year (on your local computer) and imported the data from it. The companies are competitors so it wouldn't make sense that they share data, not to mention the legal concerns. It sounds more like Tax Cut needs to encrypt their data files so Turbo tax can't make it so easy for people to switch.


It may be a requirement that they have to make your data available. If you switch accountants or switch lawyers or switch dentists, the old one is required to give your files to the new one. I would suspect that tax prep falls into that category, where the new one pings the old one with the info that msmith provided, and the old one has to turn over the files.

It could have all been done on his computer, but I'd be more likely to believe that they have systems set up to transfer files automatically. It's no different than if you electronically transfer money between bank accounts or IRAs.

[kepp]

I know TurboTax saves all that information locally on your hard drive so when you install it again the following year, you can easily import it all instead of entering it again.

[Royal Fanatic]

Of course Turbotax and Tax Cut can import data from each other's files that reside on the same personal computer. It's not rocket science.

Now if they stored your personal data on their systems and then sent that data to other companies, THAT would be sharing taxpayers' into. This isn't.

This thread is ridiculous.

[morphius]

Mom, is that you?

[mikeyis4dcats.]

It may be a requirement that they have to make your data available. If you switch accountants or switch lawyers or switch dentists, the old one is required to give your files to the new one. I would suspect that tax prep falls into that category, where the new one pings the old one with the info that msmith provided, and the old one has to turn over the files.

It could have all been done on his computer, but I'd be more likely to believe that they have systems set up to transfer files automatically. It's no different than if you electronically transfer money between bank accounts or IRAs.

No, it's a local file.

http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/iq/Transfer-from-competing-software/Transfer-Last-Year-s-Tax-Info-from-H-R-Block/GEN12963.html

[patteeu]

Mom, is that you?

LMAO