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[Sr K] TurboTax Paying $141 Million to Taxpayers Who Could Have Filed for Free The pay...

Sr K — 5/4/2023 6:04:21 PM

TurboTax Paying $141 Million to Taxpayers Who Could Have Filed for Free

The payments are part of a 2022 settlement over online ads that sent customers to TurboTax’s paid service

By Ashlea Ebeling

May 4, 2023 3:55 pm ET

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TurboTax owner Intuit will make payments ranging from $29 to $85 to about 4.4 million taxpayers. PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
Millions of Americans who were charged for tax preparation that should have been free will receive settlement checks from TurboTax starting next week, New York’s attorney general said Thursday.

TurboTax owner Intuit agreed to the $141 million settlement a year ago over allegations its TurboTax software deceived low-income Americans into paying to file their taxes when they qualified to file for free. Intuit will make payments ranging from $29 to $85 to about 4.4 million taxpayers, New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

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[Sr K] Intuit to Pay $141 Million Over ‘Deceptive’ TurboTax Marketing Claims Nearly 4....

Sr K — 5/5/2022 1:26:45 AM

Intuit to Pay $141 Million Over ‘Deceptive’ TurboTax Marketing Claims

Nearly 4.4 million affected users will get about $30 for each year they paid for tax-preparation services from 2016 to 2018.

Exc.

[Glenn Petersen] Intuit Nears Deal to Buy Credit Karma for $7 Billion: WSJ By Jihye Lee Bloombe...

Glenn Petersen — 2/23/2020 9:37:50 AM

Intuit Nears Deal to Buy Credit Karma for $7 Billion: WSJ

By Jihye Lee
Bloomberg
February 22, 2020

Intuit Inc. applications are seen in the App Store on an Apple Inc. iPhone.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
___________________________-

Intuit Inc. is close to buying Credit Karma Inc. for about $7 billion in cash and stock deal, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter it didn’t identify.

The purchase, which could be announced by Monday, will push the maker of TurboTax deeper into the consumer finance space, the newspaper said. The acquisition would also be Intuit’s largest in its 37-year history, it added.

Broadening its sales base is important at a time when Morgan Stanley said it’s expecting tax-preparation software companies to face headwinds for the revenue they get from each tax return this year due to the combined effect of a rising mix of free filings and lower need for services that assist do-it-yourself filers.

Still, Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss had expected Intuit to hit the high end of its implied consumer tax guidance as TurboTax continues to gain market share. Intuit shares have risen 14% since the start of the year, compared with a 3.3% advance in the S&P 500 Index.

Under current negotiations, closely-held Credit Karma would operate as a standalone unit with its Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lin staying in charge, one person told the paper. The San Francisco-based company is backed by funds such as private-equity firm Silver Lake and financial-technology venture firm Ribbit Capital, it added.

Credit Karma, which was co-founded by Lin, was considering an initial stock offering before late 2019 amid a series of weak-performing trading debuts, the newspaper said. Its website gives users access to credit scores and recommends financial products from credit cards to personal and car loans.

Intuit is expected to report its second-quarter earnings on Monday.

[Glenn Petersen] IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete With TurboTax The...

Glenn Petersen — 1/1/2020 10:45:36 AM

IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete With TurboTax

The changes come after ProPublica’s reporting showed how TurboTax maker Intuit tricked customers into paying for tax prep they could have gotten for free.

by Justin Elliott and Paul Kiel
ProPublica
Dec. 31, 1 p.m. EST

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Finding free online tax filing should be easier this year for millions of Americans.

The IRS announced significant changes Monday to its deal with the tax prep software industry. Now companies are barred from hiding their free products from search engines such as Google, and a years-old prohibition on the IRS creating its own online filing system has been scrapped.

The addendum to the deal, known as Free File, comes after ProPublica’s reporting this year on how the industry, led by TurboTax maker Intuit, has long misled taxpayers who are eligible to file for free into paying.

Under the nearly two-decade-old Free File deal, the industry agreed to make free versions of tax filing software available to lower- and middle-income Americans. In exchange, the IRS promised not to compete with the industry by creating its own online filing system. Many developed countries have such systems, allowing most citizens to file their taxes for free. The prohibition on the IRS creating its own system was the focus of years of lobbying by Intuit. The industry has seen such a system as an existential threat. Now, with the changes to the deal, the prohibition has been dropped.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The addendum also expressly bars the companies from “engaging in any practice” that would exclude their Free File offerings “from an organic internet search.” ProPublica reported in April that Intuit and H&R Block had added code to their Free File pages that hid them from Google and other search engines, diverting many users to the companies’ paid products.

“The improved process will make Free File stronger and give taxpayers another reason to consider this valuable software option,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement. The agency hopes the changes will make the free option more accessible for taxpayers in the 2020 filing season, he said.

Under the new rules, participating companies also have to standardize the naming convention of their Free File version as “IRS Free File program delivered by [product name].” In the past, many tax filers reported being confused by the difference between, for example, TurboTax Free and TurboTax Free File.

In a blog post on the Intuit website, the company said, “Intuit strongly supports these changes to the Free File program and associated Free File offerings because they increase the focus on the taxpayer experience.”

Intuit faces multiple ongoing lawsuits and investigations into whether the company deceived customers. The company has said such accusations are baseless.

propublica.org

[Sr K] blogs.wsj.com Beginning with 2014 tax returns, many customers can no longer use...

Sr K — 1/23/2015 7:42:41 AM

blogs.wsj.com

Beginning with 2014 tax returns, many customers can no longer use TurboTax Deluxe software (desktop or download, as opposed to online preparation) if they want to electronically file Schedule C (for small businesses), Schedule D (capital gains and losses) or Schedule E (rental property). Instead, they must upgrade to one of the more expensive versions of the software.

The switch enraged many long-time users, who posted more than 1,400 negative complaints at Amazon.com with complaints of “bait and switch” and “price gouging.”

In response, rival H&R Block offered many TurboTax users a free trial of its competing software.

Here’s the start of the email being sent to prior-year users of TurboTax Deluxe desktop software by Sasan Goodarzi, the general manager of Intuit TurboTax:

We messed up. We made a change this year to TurboTax desktop software and we didn’t do enough to communicate this change to you as proactively and broadly as we could or should have. I am very sorry for the anger and frustration we may have caused you.

[SI Ron (Crazy Music Man)] This board needs a logo and a new moderator. Anyone up for the job? Ron

SI Ron (Crazy Music Man) — 10/8/2014 3:01:50 PM

[Sr K] wsj.com 9/25/2014 all-time high was yesterday, 87.31 Mention of mint.com here ...

Sr K — 9/25/2014 5:52:07 PM

wsj.com
9/25/2014

all-time high was yesterday, 87.31

Mention of mint.com here

online.wsj.com

[Sr K] 30 Bookmarks 4 pages A sting in Tampa in 2011 dismantled an operation involvi...

Sr K — 1/10/2014 6:05:06 PM

30 Bookmarks

4 pages

A sting in Tampa in 2011 dismantled an operation involving $130 million in fake claims and laundered funds. Last summer, police near Miami responding to reports of a home invasion found more than 500 prepaid TurboTax ( INTU)-issued Visa ( V) cards, each loaded with thousands of dollars in fraudulent refunds. DIY electronic filing made easy by online tax preparation service TurboTax has been such a boon for crooks that Miami strip clubs popular with gang members have started catering to the tax-fraud set. Catlin says it’s not unheard of for this new breed of nouveau riche to burn through a brick of dollar bills in a single night. Last year, he says, one club was even advertising Turbo Thursday specials, in honor of TurboTax.

businessweek.com

[Sr K] 9/24/2013 4:06PM Intuit and Square announce point of sale and accounting integr...

Sr K — 9/24/2013 5:34:04 PM

9/24/2013

4:06PM Intuit and Square announce point of sale and accounting integration ( INTU) 65.96 -0.45 : Built on Ico's open platform, the integration will enable small businesses to more efficiently import their transactions from Square into QuickBooks helping them streamline their operations, save time and ensure accurate reporting. The offering will be available on November 19.

[Sr K] Kabbage teams up with Intuit to expand its financing business By Alistair Barr ...

Sr K — 5/14/2013 12:11:27 PM

Kabbage teams up with Intuit to expand its financing business

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO | Tue May 14, 2013 8:29am EDT

May 14 (Reuters) - Kabbage, a start-up that specializes in financing for small online merchants, has teamed up with Intuit Inc to expand its service to bricks-and-mortar businesses.

Kabbage said on Tuesday it will use data from QuickBooks, Intuit's accounting software, to make quick decisions on whether to extend financing to businesses that use the software.

About four million retail, services and manufacturing businesses use QuickBooks, expanding Kabbage's potential reach. Until now, Kabbage has focused on financing for sellers on e-commerce marketplaces, such as those run by eBay Inc and Amazon.com Inc.

Kabbage is one of several companies that are using new sources of data from the Internet to underwrite differently than banks and other traditional lenders.

PayPal, the payment division of eBay, and Amazon have also begun lending money to merchants that sell on their marketplaces, using online data to underwrite the process. [ID: nL2N0CQ0TY]

Some banks already use QuickBooks data, along with lots of other information, to help them underwrite small business loans. However, Kabbage will be the first company to use only QuickBooks data to decide whether to extend financing.

For Intuit, teaming up with Kabbage makes its QuickBooks service more attractive to small businesses, by helping them get financing more easily.

"Small businesses have had a terrible time trying to get capital," said Richard Preece, a director at Intuit's QuickBooks unit. "If it's easier for QuickBooks users to get financing, that's a good thing."

Through the partnership, Kabbage gets access to information including cash flow, employee count, inventory levels and vendor payments, Preece noted.

"There are literally hundreds of data points and the combination of those over time allows Kabbage to start underwriting in a way that banks don't do today," he added.

Thomvest Ventures is a Kabbage investor. Thomvest Chairman Peter J. Thomson is a director of Thomson Reuters Corp, which owns the publisher of this report.

reuters.com/article/2013/05/14/kabbage-intuit-idUSL2N0DU2O720130514

reuters.com

[Sr K] Intuit Grows Annual Revenue 11 Percent, Operating Income 17 Percent Expects 9 t...

Sr K — 8/20/2011 7:04:18 PM

Intuit Grows Annual Revenue 11 Percent, Operating Income 17 Percent

Expects 9 to 11 Percent Revenue Growth and Double-Digit EPS Growth in Fiscal 2012; Company Announces Cash Dividend

Press Release Source: Intuit Inc. On Thursday August 18, 2011, 4:00 pm EDT

.

Quarterly Dividend

Intuit’s board of directors approved a quarterly cash dividend. The cash dividend will be paid on Oct. 18 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Oct. 10. The dividend will be $0.15 a share. Future declarations of dividends and the establishment of future record dates and payment dates are subject to the final determination of the board of directors.

Stock Repurchase Program

During the fourth quarter, Intuit repurchased $250 million of its shares, bringing total repurchases to nearly $1.4 billion for fiscal 2011.

With $640 million remaining on the current authorization, Intuit’s board of directors approved a new $2 billion stock repurchase program, authorized through August 2014. The three-year window provides the flexibility to maintain an active stock repurchase program while also investing for growth.

finance.yahoo.com