Key takeaways:
- Intuit has agreed to pay $141 million to settle a multistate lawsuit over deceptive advertising practices.
- The settlement will provide relief to consumers who were eligible for the Internal Revenue Service’s Free File program but were instead charged a fee to file their tax returns with TurboTax.
- Intuit must pay $30 million in restitution to consumers who were charged a fee to file their taxes with TurboTax, even though they were eligible for the IRS Free File program.
Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, has agreed to pay $141 million to settle a multistate lawsuit over deceptive advertising practices. The settlement, announced a year ago, comes after a 2019 ProPublica report revealed that Intuit had been steering low-income taxpayers toward its fee-based products after promising them access to no-cost tax filing services.
Under the settlement, Intuit must suspend its “free, free, free” ad campaign that promised free tax prep, but actually charged many consumers for the service, according to a Thursday statement by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The settlement will provide relief to consumers who were eligible for the Internal Revenue Service’s Free File program but were instead charged a fee to file their tax returns with TurboTax. Consumers who recently filed tax returns with TurboTax will soon start receiving checks as part of the settlement.
Intuit has also agreed to pay $30 million in restitution to consumers who were charged a fee to file their taxes with TurboTax, even though they were eligible for the IRS Free File program. The company must also pay $11 million to the states that participated in the settlement.
The settlement is a victory for consumers who have been taken advantage of by Intuit’s deceptive practices. The company must now pay for its actions and provide relief to those who were affected.
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