Import W-2 and 1099 Forms Into TurboTax and HR Block: From Where?

By Harry Sit

After reading my previous post Fake TurboTax Discount Through Vanguard and Fidelity, reader Mike sent me an email:

I have accounts with both Vanguard and Fidelity, having several mutual funds, ETFs, and individual bonds, etc., with each company. I am able to download my tax info into TurboTax from both sites. I don’t think l can do that with HR Block.

I think this is one of the reasons Fidelity and Vanguard offer TurboTax and not H&R Block. A couple of years ago I tried using HR Block and it didn’t download my Fidelity or Vanguard info. If you know anyone who has download their tax forms from HR Block, I’d like to know.

Great question. Both TurboTax and HR Block advertise that they can import W-2 and 1099 forms. But from where?

TurboTax publishes a list of providers from which you can download W-2 and 1099 Forms. The W-2 partners include the leading payroll provider ADP and a number of individual employers. The 1099 partners include most major financial institutions.

I couldn’t find a similar list from HR Block’s website, but since I have its software, I looked inside the software.

For importing a W-2, HR Block asks for the employer’s federal Employer Identification Number (EIN). I entered my employer’s EIN found on my W-2. It says it’s eligible for importing because my employer uses ADP for payroll. I wanted to see HR Block also supports W-2 import from Paychex, the No. 2(?) payroll provider, but I don’t have an EIN to try. If your employer uses Paychex and you want me to try it, please send me the EIN by email.

For importing 1099′s and 1098′s, HR Block software lists a number of financial institutions in a scroll box. I can’t copy the complete list out of it and I don’t want to retype them. Because 1099-INT (interest earned) and 1098 (mortgage interest paid) are relatively simple, I’m not too worried about coverage for banks and credit unions. I just looked at mutual fund companies and brokers, especially discount brokers.

HR Block’s coverage isn’t as complete as TurboTax’s. I think this is the first or second year HR Block supports importing tax forms from financial institutions. The table below compares the support for importing W-2 and 1099 forms in TurboTax and HR Block:

  TurboTax HR Block
ADP yes yes
Paychex no ?
     
Fidelity yes yes
Vanguard yes no
T. Rowe Price yes yes
Charles Schwab yes no
TD Ameritrade yes yes
E*Trade yes yes
Wells Fargo Advisors yes no
USAA yes no
Scottrade yes yes
ING ShareBuilder yes yes
Ameriprise yes yes
Merrill Lynch yes yes

HR Block doesn’t yet support downloading from Vanguard, Schwab, Wells Fargo, and USAA. It supports Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, TD Ameritrade, and E*Trade. Since I don’t use the import feature, the gap doesn’t really affect me. At a substantial savings off the comparable TurboTax version, I’m not complaining. I’m sure they are working on it.

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Posted on February 29, 2012 under Taxes. Keywords: .

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Comments

7 Comments on Import W-2 and 1099 Forms Into TurboTax and HR Block: From Where?

  1. Paul Jordan on February 29, 2012
     

    Nice work on your analysis. Paychex produces less W-2s than some of other providers (they have very small employers). TurboTax also imports W-2s directly from some of the largest US employers, Intuit Payroll, Ultimate Software, Ceridian, Talx W-2 Express, CIC Plus, etc etc. The total is nearly 500,000 employers and 80 Million W-2s. One gap is that the US’ largest employer – the Federal Government – only allows a small number of agencies to import their W-2s into TurboTax.

    In addition, CPAs and Accountants can use our ProTax products to have their customers import ADP and Intuit Payroll W-2s into TurboTax ProSeries and Lacerte Software.

    Again, nice work!

  2. Duke on March 1, 2012
     

    Thanks for your suggestion. Groupon has a deal 20 plus 5 dollars shipping for the HR Block deluxe. So you save a few bucks vs Amazon’s current $31 price.

  3. Michael mcWilliams on March 21, 2012
     

    Thanks for this analysis and I’m pleased to inform that as of March 13th, 2012, H&R Block At Home now imports 1099′s from Vanguard Mutual Funds and Vanguard Brokerage.

    H&R Block At Home also imports W-2′s directly from Ultimate Software, Ceridian, Talx W-2 Express, CIC Plus, etc. etc.

    Also new this year is the ability for a client to easily import a PDF of their prior year Online tax return from competitor’s products. While this capability has exsted for some time now with desktop software, this is a new capability for the online category and H&R Block At Home is the only one doing it.

  4. newtonsapple on February 2, 2013
     

    I just tried importing my W-2 from paychex using H&R block and got a message saying they do not currently work with this provider. I am also not able to download my W-2 directly from the Paychex website. My guess is this is something my employer has to enable. There is a small chance H & R block will allow importing a w-2 if your employer enables online access to w-2′s.

  5. newtonsapple on February 2, 2013
     

    I just noticed this post is a year old…

  6. Mark on February 16, 2013
     

    H&R Block is worthless. For my 2012 return I still cannot download information from Wells Fargo Advisors, one of the largest brokerages in the country. I have dozens of capital transactions that I do not want to enter manually. To represent that you permit downloads of 1099s and not have some of the primary brokerage companies included is simply unacceptable and inconceivable that someone would try to market a product that has such a large gap.

  7. MSD on March 2, 2013
     

    I to have numerous trades I don’t want to enter manually.
    Just tried to download 1099s from Ameritrade. HR Block Deluxe shows TDAmeritrade in the drop down selection, but ….no go.
    Logged on to Ameritrade and they mention only two acceptable platforms, TurboTax and TaxAct. HR Block is misreprenting their product.
    I’ve been using their software for over twenty years. Will switch to TurboTax now.

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