Can I use TurboTax Desktop 2025 on Macbook Air with macOS Tahoe?

Yes. The desktop versions of TTax 2025 are supported on Tahoe, Sequoia & Sonoma.

Yes. I'm using the 2025 desktop version now. The only issue (so to speak) is Intuit is one of those vendors who don't seem to understand the concept of Apple Silicon Macs. It's still Intel code only.

They won't be able to pretend next year if they expect anyone with new Macs running the next release of macOS to buy their product.

Kurt Lang wrote:

The only issue (so to speak) is Intuit is one of those vendors who don't seem to understand the concept of Apple Silicon Macs. It's still Intel code only.

Not sure what you mean to imply by that. I just completed my tax returns on my Apple Silicon, M4Pro MBPro, Sequoia. All ran perfectly well. If my M4 was running Rosetta 2, I saw no ill effect.

I was sure I remembered Rosetta 2 having a drop dead date, so I looked again. What I did was mix up what Intel support was being dropped when.

As Niel noted, the next major macOS release (macOS 27) will drop support for Intel based Macs, but Rosetta 2 will still be included.

Where Rosetta 2 starts going away is with the release of macOS 28. Information from an Apple keynote speech in 2025:

Rosetta 2 enables Macs with Apple silicon (Arm architecture) to run apps that were built for Macs with an Intel processor (x86 architecture), by translating code.

Starting with macOS 28, Apple said that only a limited version of Rosetta 2 will remain available for older games that rely on Intel-based frameworks:

Rosetta was designed to make the transition to Apple silicon easier, and we plan to make it available for the next two major macOS releases – through macOS 27 – as a general-purpose tool for Intel apps to help developers complete the migration of their apps. Beyond this timeframe, we will keep a subset of Rosetta functionality aimed at supporting older unmaintained gaming titles, that rely on Intel-based frameworks.

The document also reiterates that macOS Tahoe will be the final macOS release that supports Intel-based Macs. However, Apple said that Intel-based Macs will continue to receive security updates for an additional three years.

So even with macOS 28, Rosetta 2 still won't really be gone, but its use will be much more limited.

No implication at all. Fact. This year's TurboTax desktop app for Mac is Intel code only. You'd expect at this point it would finally be Universal. But no.

It of course runs in Rosetta 2 on an Apple Silicon Mac, or it wouldn't be able to run at all.

My main point was come this fall, assuming Apple continues on their same path, the next major release of macOS has been announced to be Apple Silicon native only. Intel apps will not run as there will be no Rosetta included.

So, the 2026 desktop version of TurboTax will absolutely have to be a Universal app. If it's still Intel only, users of brand new Macs purchased late in the year that ship with whatever the next macOS is named (likely macOS 27), will not be able to run TurboTax desktop. At least, not without installing the free VMware, installing an older version of macOS within that which supports Rosetta 2, and then TurboTax desktop in the VM. That's not something a lot of computer users would know how to do, or know of at all. But I can see Intuit being that pig-headed. It's no secret they are not fans of Macs.

That's a question best asked of TurboTax.

While the next release will only run on Apple Silicon Macs, it'll still support Rosetta 2.

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Yes.

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Thank you for responding with your concerns, TexasHero.

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Smiliñ 😎 Brian

That's much different than what I've read in multiple articles. Some of them in Mac-centric magazines, claiming the next macOS is the end of the line for anything Intel.

I did wonder why Rosetta 2 would be cut off. The original Rosetta for running PPC apps on Intel Macs was a third party, licensed add-on. So I could see Apple wanting to drop that after just a couple of years. But Rosetta 2 was written entirely by Apple. They can use it as long as they want.

Thanks for the link, and correct info.