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Ahead of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Administrative Hearing

Intuit Reaffirms Commitment to Free Tax Preparation

Written by Intuit Blog team
Published Mar 26, 2023
1 min read

On March 27, Intuit will counter the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) claims related to its advertising practices around free tax preparation before an FTC administrative law judge. Intuit will show that it has been clear, fair, and transparent with its customers in marketing its free tax preparation offering, TurboTax Free Edition.

While we believe this hearing, which is similar to a trial, is unnecessary because the core of the FTC’s case was resolved in last year’s multi-state settlement with the state attorneys general, we will argue that the FTC is telling an incomplete and inaccurate story around Intuit’s efforts to promote and provide truly free online tax preparation to millions of Americans. The FTC’s argument that our ads imply that all TurboTax is free is baseless and has already been viewed skeptically by a federal district judge, who denied the FTC’s attempt to obtain a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction last year.

In the last nine years alone, Intuit has helped more than 113 million Americans file their taxes free of charge — more than all other tax prep software companies combined. That is 113 million Americans who have benefited from Intuit advocating on their behalf – free of charge to them and free of charge to the government – to ensure they receive every single dollar they earned and deserve.

Despite the FTC’s illogical pursuit of this matter, Intuit’s commitment to free tax preparation remains and Intuit will vigorously defend itself in this case.