The FTC filed a lawsuit against H&R Block over what the commission called deceptive advertising.
AdvertisementSo-called "free" online tax filing services like Intuit's TurboTax and H&R Block's Online Filing option have, for a long time, not actually been free for many Americans.
The consumer protection agency filed a complaint against H&R Block last week, accusing the company of deceptive advertising and unfairly deleting users' tax data.
A 2019 ProPublica investigation found Intuit and H&R Block's practices — including hiding their free filing options from Google search — are part of a decadeslong lobbying effort by the companies to keep tax filing services complicated.
It was partially because of those lobbying efforts that the IRS did not roll out its own online free tax filing pilot until last year.
Persons:
—, Samuel Levine, Levine, Dara Redler, Derrick L, Plummer
Organizations:
FTC, H, Intuit, Service, Consumer, Business, NPR, Google, IRS
Locations:
FTC's