It's tax time and, like many people, you may be looking for a tax preparation service — especially one that's free. Intuit, the company that owns TurboTax, has caught the attention of many people with ads that said things like “$0 to file your taxes” and “File your taxes for FREE.” The problem? For many people, it's not actually free.
The FTC announced a lawsuit against Intuit for misleading people about filing their tax returns for free with TurboTax, and separately, asked a federal court to stop TurboTax's misleading advertising. According to the complaint, since at least 2016, it was only after people spent time entering their sensitive personal and financial information that many learned they would need to upgrade to a paid TurboTax product in order to complete and file their return. of taxes.
So when is it free? Only when you meet TurboTax's definition of a “simple return” (which they've changed several times since 2016). In practice, during 2020, two-thirds of people did not qualify for the “simple declaration.” That includes people who got unemployment benefits and self-employed workers with 1099 forms.
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