Turbotax is Being Charged by Lawmakers for Providing Free Tax Filing on Tax Day

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is seeking answers from intuit regarding its popular TurboTax e-filing program as millions of Americans file their 2021 income taxes online today.

TurboTax, according to Congress, sells goods that “swindle American taxpayers into paying for the services that ought to be free.”

The IRS’ Free File program, under which TurboTax and other partners were meant to provide free tax preparation services to low-income Americans, is at the heart of their issue. According to the letter’s statistics, the program was designed to benefit 70% of Americans, but as of 2018, it’s only serving 3%.

Warren, Porter, and Sherman believe TurboTax is partially responsible for this, citing ProPublica research that revealed the corporation was inserting coding to its Free File site that prevented it from appearing in Google searches. According to ProPublica, the corporation has subsequently modified that code, but this did not appear to please Warren and her coworkers.

Goodhttps://t.co/aIyTA46uv2

— Erin Kelly ☘? (@ebkelly) April 19, 2022

Throughout the letter, they requested that Intuit disclose the number of staff and other partners with whom it has collaborated since 1999 who have also had positions in the executive branch. They also posed the question backward: Since 1999, how many workers or partners have gone on to serve in the executive branch?

The legislators are intuited has also been asked to divulge how so much money it has made from taxpayers earning less than $73,000 since 1999. But, in the end, the letter isn’t just looking for answers. It is also attempting to create awareness of the Tax Filing Generalization Act. Read more about Snapchat to Generate Income for Story Makers.

This would provide Americans with a pre-filled form that they could sign and submit to the IRS to pay their taxes. However, that law has been floating around for years and only appears to garner any attention on Tax Day, so don’t keep your hope.