TurboTaxScams

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    TurboTaxScams

    Intuit, a company worth $50 billion, continues to mislead Black taxpayers by steering them to pay for services that should be free. The company advertised free services through its TurboTax platform, but up-charging them contributed to the more than $16 billion earned last year. Currently, TurboTax comes with costly fees that aren't stated upfront and they charged millions of people to file their taxes last year when there likely shouldn't have been a charge at all. TurboTax initially offers free promises, like a CPA or no-fee filing, or refund advances with 0% APR, only to add fees once customers start using their service. By the time, customers discover fees, they're often too deep into the process to turn back. Instead of allowing customers to choose the free product, TurboTax threatens the loss of their data and would require them to start their taxes from the beginning. This is deceptive.

    Black individuals and Black-owned businesses rely on services like TurboTax to help keep their overhead costs down. Fees and hidden costs take money out of their pockets and ultimately away from those that depend on their business. For 20 years, Intuit has lobbied against free tax filing, lured customers with deceptive tactics, and fended off government attempts to make tax filing truly free, easy, and accessible. And they are still at it with the same old business practice of scamming customers out of their hard-earned money.

    It’s only been one year since the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruled that TurboTax maker, Intuit Inc., engaged in deceptive practices. It has only been three years since Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, agreed to pay $141 million to settle allegations that its software misled low-income Americans. The company was accused of deceiving more than 4.4 million taxpayers into paying for tax filing services when they were actually eligible to file for free.

    Here is the Petition:

    To Intuit:

    As the owner of the TurboTax platform, Intuit has raked in billions, often at the expense of the most economically vulnerable in our country. Millions of Americans have asserted they've been defrauded and deceived by this platform. The free edition of TurboTax limits what can be electronically filed, thus directing consumers to two premium paying options, one exceeding $100. And for small businesses, the use of a "free" CPA often comes with added fees. Additionally, small businesses that use accounting software face mounting fees. Waiving fees and special offerings on all platforms is critically necessary for our community at this time. The fee-paying options are costly and come at a great expense to financially strapped taxpayers and businesses. At minimum we call on you to discontinue any fees or offerings/charging of additional services for any taxpayer that would qualify for the IRS’ Free File program ($84,000) and at a maximum you should refund those individuals who previously paid to use your service but qualified to use the IRS Free File service. The fee-paying options are costly and come at a great expense to financially strapped taxpayers and businesses. Black, vulnerable, and low-income communities are disproportionately affected. We call on you to end these deceptive practices and the harm to Black and low-income communities.