Attorney General Knudsen secures $500,000 for Montanans deceived by TurboTax

HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced today that his office secured a half-million dollars from the owner of TurboTax, Intuit Inc. (Intuit), for using deceptive digital tactics to steer low-income consumers toward its commercial products and away from federally supported free tax services.

Approximately 16,700 Montanans will benefit, receiving a payment directly from the settlement fund within the next few months. The payment will be sent automatically, there is no need for consumers to go through any kind of claims process.

In addition, Intuit must suspend TurboTax’s “free, free, free” ad campaign that lured customers with promises of free tax preparation services, only to deceive them into paying for services.

Intuit has offered two free versions of TurboTax. One was through its participation in the IRS Free File Program, a public-private partnership with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which allows taxpayers earning roughly $34,000 and members of the military to file their taxes for free. In exchange for participating in the program, the IRS agreed not to compete with Intuit and other tax-prep companies by providing its own electronic tax preparation and filing services to American taxpayers.

Click here to view the settlement.