Sign the petition: The IRS has a free tax filing tool but TurboTax wants to stop it

Tax prep corporations have been bombarding people with their annoying commercials for a couple months now. What’s different? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) told TurboTax that it has to stop lying.¹

The FTC said TurboTax had to stop claiming that its service was free in its commercials since a whopping two-thirds of all consumers had to pay for the service. It’s deceptive advertising, plain and simple. It’s no wonder why the tax prep industry has spent $90 million on corporate lobbying over the last 20 years² on things including trying to block a free, electronic tax filing tool for the IRS.

Now that the IRS is trying out a free filing tool called Direct File in 12 states this year, we know tax prep companies are going to go all out to protect their profits and try to crush this free tool from the government.³

Sign the petition: Corporations shouldn’t profit off of our tax filings. Take the IRS free, public electronic tax filing program over the finish line to every American.

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After years of TurboTax’s misleading TurboTax advertising (and potential fraud) to protect its profits, the corporate giant isn’t just going to let the IRS bring a free tool to all Americans without a fight.

TurboTax will continue its PR campaigns and lobbying to fight the IRS tool because 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.

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.

Sign the petition: American taxpayers should be able to file taxes for free!

Thanks for taking action,

Joey and the team at Demand Progress

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Sources:

1. New York Times, “TurboTax Can No Longer Advertise Products as Free, F.T.C. Says,” January 23, 2024.
2. American Prospect, “Can the IRS Beat the Tax Prep Industry at Its Own Game?” October 20, 2023.
3. Internal Revenue Service, “IRS Direct File pilot,” March 19, 2024.