I’ve mentioned it before, but the Sonos app on MacOS is still intel-only, so if Sonos never updates the app, I can do almost everything it can do using a web app from Sonos.
One app I am definitely keeping an eye on is Turbo Tax - as of the 2025 version, it was still Intel-only. I hope that it gets updated for MacOS 28, but there are times when I want to access data years later. My guess is that I’ll do that with a virtual machine running Golden Gate or Tahoe if I ever need it.
After filing, use TurboTax to print your return “For Your Records“ as a PDF.
Thanks - I do that. That’s not as useful if I need to file an amended return. It’s rare; I’ve only had to do that once.
If the 2026 version is still Intel-only and people file an extension next year, they’ll want to be careful about upgrading to macOS 28 before the October 15 extension deadline.
Intuit has a history of stalling on adopting the latest Mac architecture until the last possible moment. As noted, even the 2025 tax year version is Intel-only, despite Apple already announcing the impending death of Rosetta 2. TurboTax was 32-bit Intel only until tax year 2012, even though the macOS transition to 64-bit started in 2009 with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It was PowerPC only until 2006.
It’s like Intuit doesn’t know how to create a hybrid architecture executable. Or they’re not using Xcode. Or they’re doing it on purpose for some reason.
Meanwhile, if you want to save your tax form to PDF, note that there are at least 3 ways to do it and they are not the same.
This method prints only the “Recommended forms & worksheets”:
These two methods create the same pages as above, but if you print to PDF result in a much larger file:
This method is the only way to save all of the forms and worksheets. If you’re creating an achival PDF to replace access to the TurboTax application, this is what I’d use:
(I print to PDF twice: once using File > Save to PDF to get a version that is “as filed”, and a second time for All forms & worksheets)
H&R Block Tax software has been Universal for several years (2023, 2024, and 2025 tax years) so it’s a bit surprising that TurboTax has been unable/unwilling to do so.
I switched from TurboTax to H&R Block many years ago. No regrets.
This is best information I have found about TurboTax Mac’s future plans:
Intuit is planning on introducing universal binary for Tax Year 2026 and providing it for prior tax years to the extent Intuit still supports them, at least 2025 (not sure how that will work but I suppose they will provide somewhere to download and install a new binary), but 2024 is TBD.
This means prior versions of Turbotax with only intel binary will stop working when you upgrade to MAC OS 28. Intuit generally only supports current tax year and 3 prior tax years (Rosetta issue aside, an old version would continue to run once installed and activated but you wouldn’t be able to re-activate it on a new machine or may not able to get the state s/w etc). So, be sure to save PDF with all forms and worksheets as your official record, do not rely on old .tax files and being able to run old unsupported versions of Turbotax.
It was in a TurboTax forum, but was not an official answer from TurboTax, rather from a seemingly knowledgeable tax preparer. I consider it likely but take it with a grain of salt.
After my experiences with TurboTax 2025 I’m planning on using H&R Block next year. I went through a long series of problems, some of which I reported here, including getting blown off after an hour trying to solve a problem, and managing to solve a problem TurboTax could not seem able to fix (or admit that it existed). They also screwed up my state return. It’s encouraging to see you’ve been happy with H&R Block.
FWIW, I did try H&R Block last year (2024 tax year), but it wasn’t able to handle something in our return (I can’t remember what it was, but it was a deal-breaker), so I had to get Turbo Tax anyway. (I think it would have involved a lot of manual data entry that I knew TT could automatically handle, something like that.)
I’ll also likely look at H&R Block for next year. I’ve been using TurboTax since the MacInTax days, but I found the ads in the 2025 edition to be more than I wanted to deal with.
I keep a 2012 Intel MacBook Pro with upgraded RAM and an SSD to host virtual machines running various macOS versions from Snow Leopard to Monterey for running legacy software, including TurboTax.
If I could go back in time, I think I would have run the Windows versions of TurboTax instead of the Mac versions. I’m sure I would have liked the Mac versions better, but the Windows versions weren’t as finicky regarding required/supported operating systems. I haven’t tried it, but I understand that you can have many years of TurboTax on a single PC, which, due to OS requirements, is harder to do on a Mac.
Edited to add: For the reasons explained in the last paragraph, I likely will explore the Windows version of whatever I end up buying for my 2026 taxes. I would expect Windows 11 to work with many past, current, and future versions of tax software. This is compared with TurboTax for Mac, which sets a new baseline OS every year. By the way, many TurboTax users are entitled to download a Windows version of their previous purchases, even if they actually used the Mac version. For recent tax years, the tax file formats are the same.
Here’s a previous discussion on TBT, for anybody interested:
As I understand it, MacOS 27 will still contain Rosetta 2. MacOS 28 (TBR ~ Sept ’27) will not.
I’ve been using TurboTax on a Mac since TurboTax existed.
I have not had any trouble with it - and the support - particularly the last two years has been excellent. In fact, their support has improved measurably since I started using it. I have never not been able to get help or resolve an issue.
I would not expect Intuit to kiss off Mac users. I suspect they would prefer everyone used TurboTax Online… - but not to the extent of not updating software for use offline.
Perhaps my faith is misplaced.
Time will tell.
I have no financial interest or other interest in TurboTax - other than using it for my personal and business taxes.
David
Speaking of TurboTax Online, I’m curious why everyone seems to favor installing their app over using their online product. I generally try to minimize the number of apps I install on my computer, as a misbehaving one can cause a lot of problems. So I’ve used TT online for many years, only switching to a couple of their competitors when I got fed up with something and wanted to try another offering.
Is it that you worry about their servers being hacked?
For those who’ve switched from TT to H&R or other product, has the new product successfully imported the data from previous TT returns? I have a fair number of carryovers from several years and would rather not lose that or have to start over etc. but am also not a fan of Intuit.
My wife does our taxes and shifted from TT to H&R four years ago. Almost all our (fairly simple) data from the previous year’s TT imported into H&R with the exception of our Social Security Numbers. She’s been very happy with H&R, finding it more intuitive to use than TT.
If you are really switching to H&R, remember this story from a few years ago. Other stories cover other details. I wouldn’t trust them.
This year’s TurboTax gave me the impression that the software had gotten dumber, and was not up to handling some of the fiddly things of tax law, particularly state law. We live in Massachusetts, and TurboTax had trouble with its 2025 taxes.
TurboTax Online only lets you access your tax form for 7 years. With the desktop product, I can go back to the first time I used TurboTax, in 2000.
For me…
TT Online lets me save a 50-page PDF every time I file. That PDF contains absolutely everything related to my fed and state taxes from that year. I save those PDFs locally and, obviously, they eventually get backed up to my various rotating backups both on and off site.
In earlier years we had simpler taxes and TT transferred previous data fine, but now we are international, with investments, self employed, taxes in multiple locations, it’s fairlz complex for this average bear but doable in the right state of mental focus. I always compare with previous returns before finalizing and often find that some data was not moved from one form to another, etc. and when I manually fix it, the numbers are more correct. I keep a separate Numbers sheet with calculations and transferrals to see how entries in one place affect others, it’s double work but gives a better big picture/detail view of interactions of forms than TT.
But I get even more confused when it comes to years worth of carryovers, so I worry about that in changing to another software. I don’t trust Intuit or TT and wouldn’t be surprised if they lock up some of the data in their own silo to inhibit or disrupt changing. When I save pdfs with all forms and worksheets etc it’s often over 60 pages.
So… I’m not using any ‘online’ tax prep software, so is there anything for Mac out there besides TT and H&R?