Demand Progress: Sign the petition: TurboTax wants to stop the IRS from creating a free tax filing program for all Americans

 

Giant tax prep company Intuit, which owns TurboTax, has spent years trying to stop the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from creating a free, public, electronic tax filing program for all Americans.¹ In fact, over the last 20 years, the tax prep industry has spent a whopping $90 million on corporate lobbying.²

Tax prep corporations spend all this money lobbying so they can protect their own profits. But the IRS is making progress despite corporate opposition.

The IRS will pilot its free electronic filing program called Direct File in 13 states next tax season.³ For everyday Americans, this could be a huge breakthrough — but the IRS could be facing the tax prep industry’s fiercest lobbying campaign yet, given how close the government is to making TurboTax obsolete.

After years of what a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit called Intuit’s misleading TurboTax advertising (and potential fraud), the tax prep industry is continuing its disinformation campaigns. It’s in a full on corporate PR and lobbying blitz trying to protect its profitable platform at the expense of American taxpayers.⁴

It’s simple: IRS Direct File will let the average American taxpayer hang on to some of their hard-earned money, so that corporate executives have a little less money for mansions and private jets.

It’s a no-brainer, and that’s why tax prep corporations are going to pull out all the stops to thwart IRS Direct File — including disinformation and even more lobbying.

Thanks for taking action,

Tihi and the team at Demand Progress

Sources:

1. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Twitter, “Giant tax prep company Intuit wants to stop...” October 13, 2023.
2. The American Prospect, “Can the IRS Beat the Tax Prep Industry at Its Own Game?” October 20, 2023.
3. Ibid.
4. ProPublica, “TurboTax Parent Company’s Latest Argument Against Free Tax Filing: It Will Harm Black Taxpayers,” September 25, 2023.