New York Governor Calls for Investigation of H&R Block, Intuit, Large Tax Preparers -- 2nd Update

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 01, 2019 16:06 ET (20:06 GMT)

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