TurboTax Even More Evil Than Previously Thought
A few weeks ago, ProPublica reported that Congress was ready to pass a bill barring the IRS from ever creating a competitor program to services like TurboTax, making permanent a deal struck between tax preparers and the IRS that allows them to hawk their own services to taxpayers who should be able to file for free. You will be shocked to hear that many of those taxpayers end up unnecessarily shelling out for those services, despite the fact that they earn little enough—as much as $60,000—to qualify for free filing.
Today, ProPublica reveals yet another disgraceful trick that TurboTax (and competitor H&R Block) uses to squeeze money out of middle-and-low income Americans: It hides its free file page results from Google search results.