The owner of tax filing software TurboTax, Intuit, will be paying $141 million in a settlement with all 50 states. This is for supposedly leading millions of low-income Americans away from free tax-filing services.
The announcement of the settlement was made on Wednesday. It said that close to 4.4 million customers were “unfairly charged.” Intuit also has to stop its “free, free, free” advertisements because it manipulates customers with the guarantee of free tax preparation services.
Intuit has stated that it did nothing wrong as a part of the plea deal.
An investigation had first taken place after a report noted that eligible customers were lured away from federally sponsored tax filing products. This was by making them hard to locate in web searches. They steered them toward the paid version of the business’s filing services, instead. The company is also accused of using this tactic with mostly low-income customers, specifically.
If a filer used TurboTax Free Edition from 2016-2018, they will be provided with a check for about $30 for each year that they paid. This is if they should have been able to use free services. The check will be distributed through the mail.
