New York Governor Calls for Investigation of H&R Block, Intuit, Large Tax Preparers -- Update
May 01 2019 - 2:08PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for a state investigation
into large tax preparers' for allegedly hiding access to free
tax-filing options.
Last month, nonprofit news organization ProPublica reported that
Intuit Inc., the company behind TurboTax, and H&R Block Inc.,
had used misleading advertising and deceptive programming code
online to effectively hide free-filing options from people.
Intuit, H&R Block and other commercial tax-preparation firms
offer free-tax filing services to taxpayers who meet certain income
limits under an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service.
Taxpayers who earned adjusted gross income of $66,000 or less in
2018 are eligible to file for free.
"The allegations against these major tax return preparers are
disturbing, and New York will not stand idle as the public's
interest is undermined in order to pad the profits of wealthy
corporations," Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.
Last month, H&R Block said it processed 661,000 IRS free
file returns in the fiscal year through April 19, which was up from
610,000 a year earlier. IRS free file returns accounted for about
3.3% of the total returns handled, H&R Block said.
Intuit last month said it had processed about 1.2 million free
returns through April 20, roughly flat from the year earlier.
Intuit's stock trades down 1.5% Wednesday at $247.35 and H&R
Block is down 1.9% at $26.70.
"Our search and marketing practices around the IRS Free File
program have been called into question. These characterizations are
untrue," Intuit said in a statement, adding that it remains
committed to the shared goals of the Free File consortium.
An H&R Block representative didn't immediately comment
Wednesday.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 01, 2019 14:53 ET (18:53 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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