New York Governor Calls for Investigation of H&R Block, Intuit, Large Tax Preparers -- 2nd Update
May 01 2019 - 4:21PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for a state investigation
into large tax preparers' for allegedly hiding access to free
tax-filing options.
Last month, nonprofit news organization ProPublica reported that
Intuit Inc., the company behind TurboTax, and H&R Block Inc.,
had used misleading advertising and deceptive programming code
online to effectively hide free-filing options from people.
Intuit, H&R Block and other commercial tax-preparation firms
offer free-tax filing services to taxpayers who meet certain income
limits under an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service.
Taxpayers who earned adjusted gross income of $66,000 or less in
2018 are eligible to file for free.
"The allegations against these major tax return preparers are
disturbing, and New York will not stand idle as the public's
interest is undermined in order to pad the profits of wealthy
corporations," Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.
In a statement, H&R Block said its Free File program rose
8.3% this tax season, exceeding the Free File program's growth of
6.8%.
"And we believe H&R Block is in full compliance with the
Free File agreement," the company said.
Similarly, Intuit said in a statement it remains committed to
the shared goals of the Free File consortium.
"Our search and marketing practices around the IRS Free File
program have been called into question. These characterizations are
untrue," the company said.
Intuit's stock trades down 2.6% Wednesday at $244.55 and H&R
Block is down 2.7% at $26.49.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 01, 2019 16:06 ET (20:06 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
H and R Block (NYSE:HRB)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
H and R Block (NYSE:HRB)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024