Sen. Warren Says TurboTax Is Trying To ‘Scam American Taxpayers’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, along with Reps. Katie Porter and Brad Sherman, sent a letter to Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi harshly criticing the company’s TurboTax tax-filing program’s fees.

According to the letter, TurboTax offers products that “scam American taxpayers into paying for services that should be free.”

The central issue is the IRS’ Free File program, through which TurboTax and other participants are supposed to offer free tax preparation services to low-income Americans. According to stats in the letter, the program was intended to serve 70% of Americans, but as of 2018, it was only serving 3%. The lawmakers dubbed the Free File program “a failure,” and they hold Intuit partly accountable for that.

Intuit previously hired a former top IRS official to be its chief tax officer and, according to the letter, Intuit also hired former Federal Trade Commission chair Jon Leibowitz to defend the company against a lawsuit recently filed by the FTC.

That suit takes aim at TurboTax’s “bogus” promises of free tax preparation, accusing TurboTax of “disseminating the deceptive claim that consumers can file their taxes for free using TurboTax” when they often end up getting charged in the end. Intuit called the FTC’s claims “not credible.”

In their letter, the lawmakers described the suit as “welcome and long overdue.”

“Influence pedalling” by Intuit in Washington is a concern that prompted Warren, Porter and Sherman to seek answers. Intui has until May 2 to share the number of employees and external partners Intuit has worked with since 1999, who also held roles in the executive branch. And how many employees or partners have gone on to work in the executive branch since 1999.

For Warren, the letter is as much about getting answers to questions as it is about pushing companies to change their ways without government intervention.