IRS Stops Firms Like TurboTax from Hiding Free Tax-Filing Products in Searches
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:
IRS stops firms like TurboTax from hiding free tax-filing products in searches:
The Internal Revenue Service on Monday announced a new tax filing agreement that prevents companies from hiding free products from internet searches. The move is designed to make it easier for taxpayers to find and use free online tax-filing software.
Taxpayers making less than $69,000 a year can file their taxes for free, but ProPublica reported in April that Intuit, which makes TurboTax, makes it difficult for people to find the free option. Instead, searches for terms like "irs free file taxes" directed potential tax filers to paid versions of Intuit's service, according to the publication.
The IRS previously agreed not to make online tax filing free as long as tax-preparation companies, which make up an industry group called the Free File Alliance, offer free services to taxpayers making less than $69,000. But finding those free services was often a challenge.
Now an addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding between the IRS and the Free File Alliance prevents companies from "engaging in any practice" that would hide Free File options from "an organic internet search." In addition, the IRS is no longer prohibited from creating its own online filing system.
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