A TA8 file is a tax return created with TaxAct 2018, a Windows program used to prepare taxes. It contains tax information for the 2018 tax year, which includes tax forms for a specific state and federal IRS tax forms. TA8 files also store basic personal information, such as the name, date of birth, marital status, occupation, dependents, and social security number of the user.

Since annual tax returns are filed for the previous year, the TA8 file is commonly created in 2019 from the beginning of January to April 15. The TA8 file is typically created by the desktop version of TaxAct but may also be exported from TaxAct Online. TA8 files prepared by TaxAct desktop users (Free Federal, Basic, Plus, and Premium) are located in the "TaxAct2018" folder in your "My Documents" folder. Once you have completed a tax return, you can either print and mail in the tax forms or file electronically. You can create a backup of your tax return in case your tax return becomes corrupt or gets lost. To do this, select File → Backup... and name your file. A backup tax return is created and saved as a .BA8 file. It is important to note that you must save your tax return before creating your backup. NOTE: The TA8 file replaced the .TA7 file, which is used for 2017 tax returns created by the 2017 version of TaxAct.