Intuit To Pay $141 Million Settlement Over 'Free' TurboTax Ads

The company behind the TurboTax tax-filing program will pay $141 million to customers across the United States who were deceived by misleading promises of free tax-filing services, New York's attorney general announced Wednesday. From a report: Under the terms of a settlement signed by the attorneys general of all 50 states, Mountain View, California-based Intuit Inc. will suspend TurboTax's "free, free, free" ad campaign and pay restitution to nearly 4.4 million taxpayers, New York Attorney General Letitia James said. James said her investigation into Intuit was sparked by a 2019 ProPublica report that found the company was using deceptive tactics to steer low-income tax filers away from the federally supported free services for which they qualified -- and toward its own commercial products, instead.

Everyone cheated gets...30 dollars?

[Gibgezr]

Gee, that will sure stop them from ever doing that again, I mean they had to refund the money they made...this seems like way too small a fine.

Re:

[evil_aaronm]

As if. After the lawyers take their fees, or the states take their portion of the fines, the actual users might get a coupon for a "free" tax preparation session next year.

The whole thing is a scam

[groobly]

All of Turbotax itself is a scam. This should be a free service from the Federal govt. They already know all my 1099s and w2s. Why do I need to tell them what they know. Idiocy. And the only reason is Turbotax paying Congress off to keep its cash cow.

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[lsllll]

Yeah. They're a scam as a company altogether, not only TurboTax, but Quickbooks, Quickbooks Pro, etc. They force product upgrades every 2 years and charge an arm and a leg for their payroll table subscription info (not even doing the payroll, but just calculating payroll taxes and preparing forms). I hope they choke on their own spit.

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[easyTree]

You'd need to provide a substantial 'incentive' to have your viewpoint heard. It's almost as if you guys should group together and each chip-in a bunch of cash so you can sponsor your congresscritter to enact your will.

 

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[The Creator]

It's not enough to vote, you also have to bribe the people you voted for, to not fuck things up for you.

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[groobly]

Correct. Voter is not the customer for Congressthings. The customer is he who pays the piper, namely big contributors and PACs. The voter is the product that the customer delivers.

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[CaptQuark]

A while back congress enacted a law that makes it illegal for the IRS to do exactly this.

And a while back (2019) the IRS revamped that program to remove the restriction to not compete.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/01/01/0058221/irs-reforms-free-file-program-drops-agreement-not-to-compete-with-turbotax [slashdot.org]
https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-reforms-free-file-program-drops-agreement-not-to-compete-with-turbotax [propublica.org]
https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free [irs.gov]

--
Those that don't remember history are doomed to pay for it again.

Re:

[monkeyxpress]

All of Turbotax itself is a scam. This should be a free service from the Federal govt.

Do you really think it would be any better if the Federal govt provided the turbotax software? Remember that someone has to develop and maintain the software, so you'd just be paying for it through increased taxes.

It's not that the federal govt couldn't do it, but based on projects like SLS, I'd suggest it's probably better to let Intuit shareholders have a little profit than funding the multi-generation family fortunes of the entire Intuit management team but setting up a program like SLS to develop and ma

Freetaxusa

[jacks smirking reven]

I just want to plug this site as an excellent alternative to the behemoth at Intuit. Good site design, easy to use and for most people it's actually free.

I actually toss them some money because it's very reasonable (like $10) and they do a good job.

Of course the real answer is that the government has all the information to do the taxes for like a majority of citizens but they make us jump through hoops.

Me: How much do I owe?
Government: Guess ;)
Me: What if I guess wrong?
Government: Jail.

"

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[smap77]

The space between "wrong guess" and "jail" is probably about 50 letters, phone calls, and maybe even a personal visit or two. My guess is that there's even a court appearance and a jury.

Most years I have a cents rounding error and I get a letter about over or underpayment for $1-2.

The sky falls because I have to send in yet another check... for $2.

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[BishopBerkeley]

You're not rich enough! Start earning millions of dollars a year, and then you'll be forgiven from having to pay any taxes at all.

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[muh_freeze_peach]

if you don't want to pay taxes, you technically can't earn millions of dollars, so you have to cleverly disguise your income as something else entirely

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[Xenx]

I give it even odds that I screwed up my taxes to some extent this tax season. I think that, if anything, I overpaid ever so slightly.

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[taustin]

What's really between "wrong guess" and "jail" is a bill for the underpayment, and multiple opportunities to pay it, including making payments over time.

You have to be really committed to not paying taxes even when caught cheating to end up in jail.

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[OfMiceAndMenus]

I personally used TaxAct.com because they were actually free and weren't just trying to bait-and-switch me into paying for my return filing.

I also guessed wrong, and the IRS was just like "Nope, you guessed wrong. We sent you what you actually deserved instead." thus proving they don't need the return filings at all.

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[taustin]

The purpose of filing isn't to determine how much you owe, it's to document - with your signature under penalty of perjury - that you know how much you owe, and to use against you if you get caught cheating.

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[LVSlushdat]

I refer to the annual April 15th exercise as the "Second April Fools Day" or, alternatively, the "annual confession"

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[Pascoea]

Ok, this is just me being a bitter ex customer, but fuck TaxAct. I've paid them ~100$ every year for the past 6 or so years, as well as used them to file my daughter's free return. I, apparently, fucked up by starting her return first this year. That permanently changed my account to a "free" account, and wouldn't let me start my return. When I called them up, their "solution" was to create a new account. So that's what I did, with a different provider. I submitted my return with the exact same forms

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[evil_aaronm]

Freetaxusa is free, except for the state e-filing. It cost me a grand total of $14 to e-file feds and state. If I'd paper filed my state taxes, it would've been entirely free.

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[OfMiceAndMenus]

Taxact.com was free for fed and state. Included unemployment wages and a W2 for no extra money. TurboScam wanted to charge me an arm and a leg because I had some unemployment benefits.

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[MerlTurkin]

Free ONLY for federal taxes, state tax costs extra. Comparable Turbo tax for deluxe version is over $100. Turbo tax deluxe for me was $75 this year. So forget Taxact.

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[OfMiceAndMenus]

taxact.com was 100% free for both state and federal returns, compiled and filed.

Not sure what option you missed that charged you for basic filing, unless you just make so much money that it's stupid for you to be complaining about the $35 filing fee.

lock-in

[muh_freeze_peach]

I know a few older folks who still purchase a new version of the software every year. I try and tell them about other options but they're not going to change something they've been doing for decades at this point. Anywho, turbotax definitely lied about it being free, it cost me $140 to file last year so this $30 rebate I'm gonna get is kind of a kick in the dick.

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[MerlTurkin]

I've been buying Turbo tax deluxe for nearly 20 years. This year it was around $75. I'll continue to use it. It works great and their support line is very good if you need it.

Fine?

[Archangel_Azazel]

A fine is a prohibitive amount intended to punish and get a change in behavior. Well, at least for all of us lessers.
For the rich, and corporations, it's more like a fee.
Ex.
If I speed like hell, I could get a ticket that costs as much as a whole week's worth of wages (depending on where I work, obviously)
If I'm rich? That same amount is like pocket change, they couldn't care less. Can't charge them MORE though, that would be "unfair".

Corporations get even better treatment.
If I commit fraud, I'm screwed. The

Re:

[BishopBerkeley]

Excellent points.

Use html markup to get the emphasis to stick.

As many economists have stated, companies don't pay taxes. Their customers pay their taxes. It's just one more line item. "Fees", as you correctly call them, are another line item on the balance sheet.

No end to the practice

[BishopBerkeley]

The excerpt says that the ads will be pulled, but the manipulation on the web site, apparently, will not be halted. No consent decree, no admission of guilt, not even a promise to behave better. I wonder how the New York State general funds will spend this paltry sum.

Math

[Ol Olsoc]

Assuming 50 lawyers, they will each get a bit less than 3 million. The customers will probably get a 25 cent check.

Each?

[easyTree]

\o/\o/\o/\o/

So this wouldn't have happened but for ProPublica?

[kmoser]

James said her investigation into Intuit was sparked by a 2019 ProPublica report...

If only there was a Federal agency whose job it was to investigate and prosecute companies without having to rely on third parties like ProPublica to investigate for them.