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 downloaded their tax forms from HR Block, I’d like to know.
Great question. Both TurboTax and H&R Block advertise that they can import W-2 and 1099 forms. But from where?
TurboTax publishes a list of partners from which you can download W-2 and 1099 Forms. The W-2 partners include the leading payroll provider ADP, some other payroll providers, and a number of large employers. The 1099 partners include most major financial institutions.
I couldn’t find a similar list from H&R Block’s website, but since I have its software, I looked inside the software.
For importing a W-2, H&R 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.
For importing 1099’s and 1098’s, H&R 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 the coverage for banks and credit unions. I just looked at mutual fund companies and brokers, especially discount brokers.
H&R Block’s coverage isn’t as complete as TurboTax’s but there’s a substantial overlap. The table below compares the support for importing W-2 and 1099 forms in TurboTax and H&R Block:
| TurboTax | H&R Block | |
| ADP | yes | yes |
| Fidelity | yes | yes |
| Vanguard | yes | yes |
| T. Rowe Price | yes | yes |
| Charles Schwab | yes | yes |
| TD Ameritrade | yes | yes |
| E*Trade | yes | yes |
| Betterment | yes | yes |
| Wells Fargo Advisors | yes | no |
| Ameriprise | yes | yes |
| Edward Jones | yes | yes |
| Merrill Lynch | yes | yes |
| UBS | yes | yes |
H&R Block doesn’t yet support downloading from Wells Fargo Advisors. It says it supports importing from Vanguard, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and E*Trade. At a substantial saving off the comparable TurboTax version, I’m not complaining.
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Paul Jordan says
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!
Duke says
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.
Michael mcWilliams says
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.
Paul says
Well as of 1/18/2014, my H&R Block 2013 does NOT support Vanguard. So I call Bullshit
newtonsapple says
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.
newtonsapple says
I just noticed this post is a year old…
Mark says
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.
MSD says
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.
Helmut says
Even though HR Block says to enter userid and password when importing from TD Ameritrade what you actually have to enter is Account-Number and Document-ID (in the header of the Consolidated 1099).
This way it works.
Paul says
Well as of 1/18/2014, my H&R Block 2013 does NOT support Vanguard. So I call Bullshit
Paul Jordan says
TurboTax continues to expand our data import partners for both TurboTax and our professional tax products used by accountants. While W-2s from Paychex and the US Military are two exceptions, we work with most major payroll firms and employers. In total, there are nearly 100 million W-2s available for import and all of the top stock brokerage and mutual fund firms are connected to TurboTax. If you have any questions, you can contact us at [email protected].
Brian says
I can’t get myself to use turbo tax. Maybe some of you are too young to remember this, but 10-15 years ago they hid a program inside turbo tax. It tracked your online movements and sent the data back to them. The idea was they could then sell that data to vendors interested in selling you stuff. This goes on today in different ways. The problem with what turbo tax did was they never told you they were doing it. Not only that, but it slowed your computer and it’s internet connection down every time you got on. On top of all of this, there wasn’t a way to remove the software without downloading another program, which they had to have built. Really bad experience. Still don’t trust them. Never will.
Paul Jordan says
All, Intuit and TurboTax take privacy very seriously. As a tax preparer, we are legally forbidden from using customer information without permission. If interested in learning more, its called IRS Reg 7216. In addition, here is a link to our privacy policy: https://security.intuit.com/privacy/
David Carlson says
H&R Block Deluxe + e-file + State 2013 will not download 1099 information from Edward Jones. The 2012 version did work. I spent a half hour in a chat session and another half hour on the phone with H&R Block and they could not solve my problem. I select Edward Jones from the list of names in H&R Block import screen, it checks the internet connection, asks for User ID and Password, but then fails to connect, “Error code 2000.” I tried at least a dozen times, and even logged directly into Edward Jones at the same time, but no luck. Many years ago I used Intuit TurboTax but switched to H&R Block after reading about the spyware problem in the Wall Street Journal. Now I am facing the uneasy prospect of switching back, because I don’t want to enter dozens and dozens of 1099-B transactions manually, which is all H&R Block could suggest to solve this year’s problem. Grrrr.
Harry says
Maybe register a free ID with TurboTax Online and try the import there (you won’t be charged until you file)? Just to rule out whether it’s an Edward Jones problem affecting both tax software or the problem is specific to H&R Block.
Bob says
David, I called Edward Jones IT office, they say because of the new tax forms H&R Block has not been able to import the data. H&R gave a date of 02/19 or later before they could do the importing. I too have the Deluxe + state and it is a real bummer. The Edward Jones data was ready on 02/12, I guess I will give up to a week, checking it everyday and then I will look for something else, good luck
neil says
I was able to import my ML data to HR Block deluxe with no problems today. The PDF was available yesterday and import wouldn’t work then. 24 hours later, tried to import again and it came over easily.
Paul Jordan says
Hi David, to assist with the import of 1099s into TurboTax, Edward Jones has published a great how-to: https://www.edwardjones.com/en_US/resources/tax_center/downloading/turbotax/index.html
David Carlson says
Thanks Paul! Edward Jones also has great instructions for H&R Block at home, but unfortunately the tax software just can’t do it, and no help from H&R Block customer support.
Paul Jordan says
@Harry, great suggestion – make sure you choose TurboTax Premier. Also, FYI Edward Jones is live and is working for import!!
David Carlson says
Paul and Harry,
Thank you kindly for your help and suggestions. Just as I was about to switch to TTax, I gave H&RB one last try this morning.
Good news! After failing every prior day this week, I finally succeeded in importing data from Edward Jones into H&R Block at Home Deluxe, just a few minutes ago. I had about 20 failures prior to this morning. I spent much time on the phone with EJ and H&RB, to no avail. The first try this morning failed to make a connection at all, then I selected the “Retry” button, and it went through the normal sequence of checking internet connection, finding/selecting financial institution, asking for my UserID and password, attempting login, and this time it SUCCEEDED to begin to import. I never found out what the problem was. I have a very good internet connection, so perhaps the servers at H&RB and/or EJ were just too busy or something else in their handshake was flakey.
Anyway, immediate problem resolved (unfortunately after about 250 fields of manual data entry). I’ll now compare how I did manually vs. the import.
Thank you again for your timely assistance.
David
Mike Smith says
H&R Block still doesn’t import Edward Jones financial data for me for 1099-Int, 1099-Div, etc … neither company has a solution though each admit to knowing about the problem. I’m faced with buying TurboTax or paying an accountant. Either way, I won’t buy H&R Block again next year.
David Carlson says
Mike,
You may see from my post above that I did finally succeed with importing 1099-DIV and 1099-B data from Edward Jones into H&R Block. I can’t say for sure why it finally worked, but my best guess is that I was previously not identifying my computer as “private” when doing my normal logins to Edward Jones, so it was not leaving identification cookies on my computer. I had always been choosing “public computer” because I don’t mind answering the extra security question and dislike having too many cookies on my system, which are a little hard to find and weed out unless you know how and where to look for hidden files. The day the download finally worked was right after I had logged in directly to Edward Jones and chosen the “this is a private computer” that I would normally use to access my accounts. My theory is that the H&R Block software just asks for username and password, and Edward Jones may have been expecting to be able to insert a security question step in between those two things, and the interface in H&R Block would not allow that. Give it a try!
David
maria says
I use HR Block basic, I am assuming I may have to use other versions to import 1099 from Fidelity or Schwab. Is this correct? I do not see where to import on basic HR software
Harry Sit says
I don’t know whether it’s available in basic version or not. Search in ‘help’ within the program or contact customer service.
Jim says
Could someone please post where exactly in Deluxe can you import 1099-DIV from brokers?
When I search for “import” I only see results for importing from Quicken or local .TXF files.
Others have mentioned being able to import from brokers, but WHERE is that feature?!?
Paul Jordan says
Im not sure if you are using the online or desktop version of deluxe so here are a few methods.
Method One is probably the fastest if you using the desktop version:
Open your return in TurboTax.
Click on FILE menu in the top left corner.
In the dropdown menu choose IMPORT.
Then in the submenu: From financial institution.
You will then be presented the list of participating institutions.
Method Two:
FEDERAL TAXES tab.
Subtab “Wages and Income.”
“I’ll choose what I work on.”.
You will arrive at Your 2014 Income Summary.
Scroll down page to the topic and click START (or it could say Update).
One of the screens should have the institution list and ask if you want to import.
Method Three:
Federal Taxes tab.
Subtab Wages & Income.
“I’ll choose what I work on.”
Your 2014 Income Summary page.
The very first topic is IMPORT SUMMARY
See subtopic “History of Imported Documents”. Click VIEW.
At next screen choose “other document”.
Next screen should show you a list of participating financial institutions to choose from.
jeff green says
hrblock is not importing from Scottrade
David Carlson says
Jeff,
Did you log into your Scottrade account as a “private” computer vs. a “public” computer, if there is such an option? See my comment above regarding Edward Jones. With EJ, there are two login modes: public and private. If I specify a public computer, it asks me a security question after Username, before Password. The HRBlock interface did not seem to allow that. My cure was to first log into EJ and tell it to remember my computer, then log out and go into HRBlock and start an import. After entering my EJ username and password, it worked. Good luck. Don’t know how Scottrade logs you in.
David
jeff green says
Hi David,
Last year I could import Scottrade using hrblock, but this year they do not have Scottrade even listed within their drop down menu of supported financial institutions.
Paul Jordan says
TurboTax and Scottrade work together. The forms were made available for import last Sunday. Here is a link to how to import:
https://research.scottrade.com/KnowledgeCenter/Public/Help/Article?docId=32f12179b1934dcd89ad2218056d33d3
CHRISTINE WILLISON says
H&R Block does not support import of W-2 w/out BOX D (control number)
ADP switched to newer W-2 format this year, no box D – no import!
Harry Sit says
I have a control number in Box D in the W-2’s done by ADP for my employer and my wife’s employer. They must have several different systems.
Paul Jordan says
Hello, unfortunately, not all W-2s produced by ADP contain a Control Number in Box D. There are two reasons. The employer uses ADP Small Business services that does not support import to tax products OR the employer opted out of offering import. TurboTax has a mobile and tablet app that allows you to take a picture of your W-2 and import the data.
Tim G. says
Paul I use a CPA to do my tax return he uses Turbo Tax Proseries can you show me how to download tax info from Tdameritrade to that version.
Paul Jordan says
Hi Tim, with ProSeries, your CPA signs up the the Tax Import Service and then invites you to send documents (1099s and W-2s) via the Import Service directly from TD Ameritrade to the CPA. Here is more information for your CPA:
http://accountants.intuit.com/tax/proseries/add-ons/tax-import.jsp
peter shapiro says
Unable to download 2014 trade info from ETrade into HRB Premium program for tax year 2014. Get Error Code:2000. Now on hold for HRB “customer service” …30 mins and counting. ETRade is listed by the program. So is Fidelity, which which I was able to download 2014 transactions.
So is ETRade a fake listing in the program? Has anyone been able to download trade info from ETrade? Etrade says the error code 2000 is an HRB code and they don’t know what it means. I used the correct Etrade sign-in info.
Tom Brush says
I am in same boat with HR Block and Etrade. Strange thing is Etrade says they a have no problems and refer me to HR Block. HR Block says it will take 3 days to get back to me.
adtp85 says
in 2020 i am in the same boat !! looks like boat kept getting bigger !! These guys could never fix Etrade import issue !!
This is from the online version:
“2000-OFX-GENERAL-ERROR”
Simply get error code: 2000 from the software version
Paul Jordan says
E*Trade import is working fine in TurboTax. When I searched the E*Trade site for H&R, I found no reference. However, when I searched TurboTax, I found an FAQ on how to import in TurboTax. You can try this in TurboTax Premier at no cost, it only costs money when you file or print.
Subhash Gupta says
hrblock is not importing from E*TRADE
david says
H&R Block is not importing from E*TRADE for me either.
Neil Cohen says
New to HR Block software, and so far have been unable to import from Merrill Lynch accounts. Since the tax summary just appeared on ML online today, hoping it’s simply a time delay. Has anyone succeeded with this in 2015?
Paul Jordan says
Harry, I noticed the link to the TurboTax partners is an old one. The 2014 (tax year) partners are listed here: https://www.partner.turbotax.com/top_partner_list.html.
There are many new partners and employers, TurboTax now works with over 1 million employers for W-2 import and several new banks/brokers
Harry Sit says
Thank you Paul for answering people’s questions here. I replaced the link.
JANETTE MAC says
I’M A FORMER EMPLOYEE OF H&R BLOCK AND HAVE NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN IMPORTING MY W-2 FROM THEM. ISN’T IT IRONIC THAT H&R BLOCK DOES NOT PARTNER WITH ITS OWN COMPANY ALLOWING ITS EMPLOYEES TO RETRIEVE THEIR WAGES AND EARNINGS FOR THE YEAR.
Ted says
On March 1, 2015 I completed an online support chat with HR Block (after waiting over an hour to reach someone) and they claim that the software product, but not the online version, will now allow me to download information from Wells Fargo Advisors. I hope they are correct.
Jerry R says
I’ve been trying to import from Wells Fargo Advisors to H&RB. The only selection in the program is Well Fargo Advantage Funds. No go. Doesn’t work! This is ridiculous. I have used Turbo Tax for the last 4 years and it worked fine for Wells Fargo and Vanguard. But they sneaked in a change of this year of moving the 1099 brokerage account import to a significantly higher priced version of TTax. Intuit is worse than the airlines.
Paul Jordan says
Jerry R, we rolled that change in desktop software products back. You can now use TurboTax Deluxe desktop to import and handle stock sales. C’mon back to TurboTax!
Jerry R says
Thanks Paul for the reply. However, I still have concerns with TurboTax. Last year I used TT Basic and was able to create all the forms I needed and import data from my institutions. From the TurboTax site it still appears that now I will need Premier edition, which is still highly priced at $90 even though you have lowered the Deluxe from $55 to $35. After reading comments from users this year, it appears a lot of people aren’t happy after purchase because they find out as they work through the program, they need another form…and it is gonna cost more. Simply put the Basic last year was a great value and did what I want. This year, for the same features I would have to pay a lot more and not be certain that I would still get what I need.
Harry Sit says
Jerry – I’m sure Paul can relate to the amount of work involved to get the import working for each institution. Paul/Intuit did the work. H&R Block didn’t do as much or as well. If you care about the import feature you should be ready to pay more for the work Paul did. If the feature isn’t that important, then pay less and settle for not importing from Wells Fargo Advisors. Wanting the feature but not willing to pay doesn’t seem fair to Paul.
Jerry R says
Harry, I think you are off my point a bit. First, I did buy TurboTax for four years and it did exactly what I wanted. Then this year’s version had many features removed and I would have to pay $60+ more to do the same things I was doing in prior years. Second, as for H&R Block, their program appeared to offer similar features that I had with TurboTax at a decent price, including importing from a wide variety of institutions. Unfortunately, Wells Fargo Advisors was one that is missing, even though Wells Fargo Advantage is available. Offering Wells Fargo, the third largest retail brokerage firm in the nation, as an import option would seem to be an important selling point for the software. It doesn’t bode well either that WFA doesn’t offer help to the software designer to include import functions that would benefit their investors. Perhaps there are some other factors that control this feature.
Harry Sit says
For whatever reasons H&R Block decided to skimp on making imports work and work well. It costs money and time to make it work flawlessly. Just from the comments here I see most people are saying importing isn’t working in H&R Block for this broker or that broker, never one mentioning trouble with importing into TurboTax. The feature removal issue aside, I have to give it to Paul for the great work on importing. I’m only saying we are seeing a bit of “you get what you pay for” here.
Jerry R says
I agree that with you concerning H&R Block in that “you get what you pay for” and they could improve their product to “get paid for what we got”. However, on the TurboTax side, it appears a large number of users felt they got less for paying more (and reacted widely). Thus, the apology and “rollback” by Intuit. Time and use will tell how much damage this caused the company.
Tom Brush says
I am in the same boat with no ability to import assets to Schedule B from Etrade to HR Block Deluxe version. After long wait time calls they say they will get back to me in 72 hours. I even tried a different computer in hopes it was a corporate firewall problem but no luck.
Bruce says
2015-April: Success uploading TD Ameritrade to H&R Block Deluxe + E-file + State. As mentioned earlier, in the H&R Block window to sign-in to TDA, instead of ID & PW, in the ID field you must enter your TDA account number (omit the dash mark), and for PW you must enter the document ID from your TDA 1099, which is not available until late February. The document ID is (on mine) eleven alphanumeric characters. I used caps for the letters since they are caps on the document, but perhaps lower case works also. After years manually entering (including this year before trying this), I’m finally able to upload. Having done it manually originally this year, I was able to see both the manual and uploaded 1099’s then I deleted the manual one. Would of course be nice if H&R-B or TDA mentioned this.
Jerry R says
I still have had no success with H&RB importing Wells Fargo Advisors. Anybody ever get WFA to come in?
Paul Jordan says
Hello, quick update as I know there were several questions about Turbotax Desktop Software support for investments, schedule C and the ability to import from financial institutions in the desktop software. FYI – TurboTax has confirmed that, in response to customer demand, the company has “restored all the forms that customers have come to expect.” That means, for the tax year 2015 (the returns you’ll prepare in 2016), the downloadable and CD versions of TurboTax desktop software will once again include:
Schedule C for business
Schedule D for capital gains and losses
Schedule E for rental property
Schedule F for farms
1040 long form
Hope this helps make your taxes easier this year!
Paul
Neil Cohen says
After last year’s money-grab by TurboTax, I made the switch to H&R Block. Based on my experience with TY2014 filing, I’ll continue using H&R Block. I just don’t trust Intuit not to pull another bait-and-switch in the near future.
jodi says
I am on H&R Block trying to import a 1099R. I tried a couple of days ago and it said it was not ready for import yet to try again at a later time, so now im trying again and it doesnt give me the option anymore?
James says
I see most are not having any more luck in downloading 1099s into H&R Deluxe than I. Last year, I had no trouble and was quit pleased. This year is another story. The only approach that I found that might work is to download my Merrill Lynch Tax information to my computer in the Comma-Separated Spreadsheet (CSV) format and convert it into a Tax Exchange Format (TXF) using a free program called 1099bimporter.com. Than upload the files into H&R Block by clicking on the file tab and selecting the Import Financial Data and importing the files from my desktop. What you could do last year in a minute is now taking more than 20. Thanks H&R Block!!
Todd Beall says
Hi James,
Did you get this method to work? (converting from csv to txf format and importing into HRBlock). I’d like to switch to HRBlock for the extra 10%tax refund, but my brokerage isn’t directly supported by them (R W Baird). So I need a way around it.
Thanks!
Todd
Neil Cohen says
Well, I have absolutely no problem downloading 1099 information for 2 Merrill Lynch accounts as well as 2 Scottrade accounts. Using 2015 H&R Block Delux + State.
David Carlson says
Downloads worked fine this year from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, and Edward Jones. Not so for JP Morgan / Chase Bank — they only partner with TurboTax. I’m using 2015 H&R Block Deluxe + State. (For Edward Jones, make sure your computer is known to Edward Jones so you can access the account with name & password, without an intervening security question.)
Neil Islander says
I am using HR Block Tax cut -Premier. It did not down load 2014 year 1099B from E trade web site directly. My son helped me to convert E trade’s pdf file to txf file. This year I have to do the same without him. Can some one suggest a conversion program for the purpose?
Paul Jordan says
Hello, .txf files are pretty standard. The key is to get your transactions out of ETrade and into excel. Here is TurboTax link that may assist you:
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3191861-trouble-importing-etrade-1099
Albert Good says
The 2021 HR Block Deluxe desktop tax software supposedly imports 1099’s from Vanguard and Fidelity. I tried importing from both institutions and it’s hit or miss, mostly miss. Initially upon trying to import I received a cryptic “Error code: 1011”.
Their support team had no idea what caused this other than to tell me to enter the data manually! And yet the next day I was able to import some of the forms successfully. But when I went to import remaining forms the software once again reverted to the same error.
This year HR Block has dropped the ball when it comes to imports. In all the years I’ve used this software I’ve always succeeded in importing everything. Time to switch.
David says
I was able to download 1099’s from Edward Jones and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management for 2021. The process worked smoothly.
I always make sure that EJ and MS “know” my computer by logging in directly to those accounts from a browser outside of H&R Block, so I don’t run into 2-factor authentication issues within the H&R Block program. Maybe H&RB has fixed that problem which I ran into a few years ago, their help line was stumped, but I figured it out on my own.
Charlie says
If you’d rather not import a huge quantity of 1099B transactions, there seems to be an option to just enter totals of various categories (LT, ST, COVERED, NONCOVERED) manually. Then the software tells you you’re going to have to send the IRS a paper copy of your 1099B along with Form 8453. So do I kill some trees and send in something nobody is going to look at or just ignore that step? Anyone familiar with this?