Roughly 4.4 million people will soon receive checks from TurboTax, following a 50-state settlement with parent company Intuit for allegedly steering millions of low-income Americans away from free tax-filing services.
Customers affected by the settlement will receive an email about the settlement and checks will automatically be mailed throughout this month. Most customers will get about $30, with some customers that used TurboTax for three consecutive years getting up to $85. A website has also been set up for more information.
“TurboTax’s predatory and deceptive marketing cheated millions of low-income Americans who were trying to fulfill their legal duties to file their taxes,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a press release. “Today we are righting that wrong and putting money back into the pockets of hardworking taxpayers who should have never paid to file their taxes.”
She announced the settlement last year, saying that Intuit “unfairly charged” people and forced the company to stop its “free, free, free” ad campaign because it falsely lured customers with the promise of free tax preparation services.
The investigation came after a 2019 ProPublica report accused the company of steering eligible clients away from federally supported tax filing products by making them difficult to find in web searches — instead directing them toward the paid version of the company’s filing services. James said the tactic targeted low-income consumers in particular.
Intuit (INTU) has said that it “admitted no wrongdoing” as part of the agreement and it expects “minimal impact to its business” from the changes demanded in the future.
