New York Governor Calls for Investigation of H&R Block, Intuit, Large Tax Preparers

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.

Intuit and H&R Block representatives didn't immediately comment on Wednesday.

Last month, H&R Block said it processed 661,000 IRS free file returns in the fiscal year through April 19, which was up from 610,000 a year earlier. IRS free file returns accounted for about 3.3% of the total returns handled, H&R Block.

Intuit last month said it had processed about 1.2 million free returns through April 20, roughly flat from the year earlier.

Intuit's stock trades down 1.5% Wednesday at $247.35 and H&R Block is down 1.9% at $26.70.

Write to Maria Armental at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 01, 2019 14:46 ET (18:46 GMT)

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