Inside Intuit's 20-year fight to make it harder to file taxes for free, including a pact with the IRS that kept a US-run service from competing with TurboTax
“integrity without compromise” chief among them. Some joke it should be “compromise without integrity.” pic.twitter.com/geh00ke8Wf Justin Elliott / @justinelliott : So, ProPublica's TurboTax coverage started in 2013 with @LizDay. Many others here have written on it since. This year @paulkiel and I decided to try to get inside Intuit. https://www.propublica.org/... The documents we obtained help explain why U.S. tax filing is not easy and free: Paul Kiel / @paulkiel : The extent to which TurboTax dominates the online tax filing market is pretty astounding. We crunched IRS filing data from 2019 and here is the breakdown of the companies people used: pic.twitter.com/SVgfVfqSUC Barry Ritholtz / @ritholtz : Weekend long read preview: Using lobbying, the revolving door and “dark pattern” customer tricks, Intuit fended off the government's attempts to make tax filing free and easy, and created its multi-billion-dollar franchise. https://www.propublica.org/... Andrew Yang / @andrewyang : I'm going to make sure we modernize tax filing so it's as cost and pain-free as possible and kick Intuit here to the curb. https://twitter.com/... Jesse Eisinger / @eisingerj : How completely has Intuit captured the IRS? @JustinElliott & @paulkiel found an email where an IRS official worried that the popularity of free tax filing “represented a threat to future revenues and profits” to the companies. So the IRS pulled back. https://www.propublica.org/... Elizabeth Warren / @ewarren : Intuit has kept a stranglehold on our government to make filing your taxes as difficult as possible to boost their own products and profits. I've got a plan to make sure filing your taxes is free and simple—as easy as turning in a pre-filled form! https://www.vox.com/... https://twitter.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : If the government already knows how much you made and what it took out, why is filing taxes still so complicated? The answer is that Intuit, makers of Turbo Tax, have single handedly lobbied to keep filing taxes complex to preserve their business model https://www.propublica.org/... Leandra Lederman / @leandra2848 : “For more than 20 years, Intuit has waged a sophisticated, sometimes covert war ... according to internal company and IRS documents and interviews with insiders. The company unleashed a battalion of lobbyists and hired top officials from the agency that regulates it.” https://twitter.com/... Sam Alberti / @sam_alberti : Interning on the hill I remember reading a bill which prevented the IRS from creating a website for Americans to do their taxes. A staffer explained that it was being pushed by @turbotax and @HRBlock. Dark money impacts all areas of policy/our lives. That's why I'm #TeamBullock https://twitter.com/...
Current and former Intuit staffers told us about how Intuit's staffers stress its values — “integrity without compromise” chief among them. Some joke it should be “compromise without integrity.” pic.twitter.com/geh00ke8Wf
So, ProPublica's TurboTax coverage started in 2013 with @LizDay. Many others here have written on it since. This year @paulkiel and I decided to try to get inside Intuit. https://www.propublica.org/... The documents we obtained help explain why U.S. tax filing is not easy and fr…
The extent to which TurboTax dominates the online tax filing market is pretty astounding. We crunched IRS filing data from 2019 and here is the breakdown of the companies people used: pic.twitter.com/SVgfVfqSUC
Weekend long read preview: Using lobbying, the revolving door and “dark pattern” customer tricks, Intuit fended off the government's attempts to make tax filing free and easy, and created its multi-billion-dollar franchise. https://www.propublica.org/...
How completely has Intuit captured the IRS? @JustinElliott & @paulkiel found an email where an IRS official worried that the popularity of free tax filing “represented a threat to future revenues and profits” to the companies. So the IRS pulled back. https://www.propublica.org/..…
Intuit has kept a stranglehold on our government to make filing your taxes as difficult as possible to boost their own products and profits. I've got a plan to make sure filing your taxes is free and simple—as easy as turning in a pre-filled form! https://www.vox.com/... https://…
If the government already knows how much you made and what it took out, why is filing taxes still so complicated? The answer is that Intuit, makers of Turbo Tax, have single handedly lobbied to keep filing taxes complex to preserve their business model https://www.propublica.org/…
“For more than 20 years, Intuit has waged a sophisticated, sometimes covert war ... according to internal company and IRS documents and interviews with insiders. The company unleashed a battalion of lobbyists and hired top officials from the agency that regulates it.” https://twi…
Interning on the hill I remember reading a bill which prevented the IRS from creating a website for Americans to do their taxes. A staffer explained that it was being pushed by @turbotax and @HRBlock. Dark money impacts all areas of policy/our lives. That's why I'm #TeamBullock h…