Turbo Tax for Free? Not Really

Folks are reminded to use the IRS's Free File Program when filing taxes. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claimed that Intuit's involvement was part of a strategy to prevent "government 'encroachment' into the tax preparation industry." TurboTax (owned by Intuit) has released a new series of commercials, which states you can get your "simple return" filed for free, even when a professional does it. You might have seen a man standing next to a leaky sink with a rubber mallet or a man spitting out his coffee when he hears that his taxes can be done for "free."

The FTC bemoaned that it's not until the individual completes this process before being told at a "hard stop" that payment is required. "In the case of the hard stop screens, this confrontation comes after consumers have already created a TurboTax account and expended substantial time inputting sensitive personal and financial information into Intuit's user interface," the complaint said. Read more from the FTC here.

This article was submitted By William Graff. If you would like to submit content or write an article for the Tax Section, please email Kara Sikorski at ksikorski@indybar.org.

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