Getting Worse Part 2: Intuit's CEO Informs Employees That Free To File Was Hidden For The Public's Own Good
from the pro-public-uh... dept
Like we said, Intuit apparently wants to keep digging this hole for itself. After our initial coverage of ProPublica's excellent posts on how Intuit was going to crazy lengths to keep anyone from finding its free to file tax prep site, we followed up with reports of how many Intuit reps were lying to keep from giving people refunds. Those lies included claims that Intuit and TurboTax don't even run the free to file program and that it was instead operated by the IRS itself with TurboTax branding. Another lie was that ProPublica's reporting was all wrong and that the news organization was about to run a retraction. Spoiler alert: no they are not.
But it seems that the Intuit brass aren't content only to lie to the public. Intuit's CEO managed to cobble together an internal video -- which of course leaked -- so that he could lie to his own staff as well.
Sasan Goodarzi, the CEO of Intuit, says the company’s efforts to make its free tax-filing software harder to find on Google were part of the software giant’s commitment to educating taxpayers. In an 11-minute video sent to Intuit employees, Goodarzi said the company was trying to help consumers by steering them to “educational content” instead of TurboTax’s free filing website.
Responding to our reporting, which shows that Intuit, H&R Block and other for-profit tax software companies were steering low-income customers to their paid products, Goodarzi said the company’s marketing practices “had been misinterpreted to signal that we were trying to hide the product we offer in the IRS program. That is inaccurate.”
That's nonsense. Intuit's decision to combine buying Google ads and de-indexing the free to file site via robot.txt file has only one reasonable motivation: to hide the free option and push people to the paid services. It's also clear from the result of these actions, which is that 3% of taxpayers eligible to file for free did so, with 97% instead paying for services they didn't need. That's a whole lot of "educating" going on, all of which happens to result in gobs of money for Intuit.
We'll put the entire video at the bottom of the post for your enjoyment, but there are a couple of sections we should highlight in text.
“Over the past five years, tens of millions of consumers filed their taxes for free using one of our free offerings. That is more than every tax prep company combined.”
If there are any hard statistics to back this statement up, Goodarzi doesn't offer them. Neither did Intuit's PR folks when ProPublica asked for them. The end result, whatever the actual hard numbers, is that 3% of eligible taxpayers used the free to file program. That number ain't great.
We created a holistic marketing approach including widely used search techniques to differentiate between our own free products and the one we offer through the Free File program. Knowledge is power and we wanted to equip taxpayers with the information they need to make an informed choice and more easily find the product they were looking for. As you know we advertise a lot. We’ve all seen them: “free free free.” Because we advertise so much, our experience and our common sense tells us that the majority of people doing internet searches for the words “TurboTax free tax preparation” are looking for TurboTax free product. Not the one we offer through the IRS Free File program.
This takes a lot of stones. Suggesting that the average person searches the internet for "TurboTax free tax preparation" looking for not free tax prep by TurboTax takes the kind of full on blatant lying typically reserved for current American Presidents. And keep in mind that these poorly-spun lies are being told to internal Intuit employees. Why anyone would want to listen to this and continue to work there is beyond me.
And, amazingly, despite this vociferous defense of Intuit's practices, the video culminates with Goodarzi stating that the company has ceased hiding the free to file site due to all of this "fake news" reporting.
Our choice around search was intended to be in the best interest of taxpayers so they were more fully informed about their options and could choose what they felt was best for them. But given the misinterpretation of our well intended actions, we decided to remove the limitations we put in place.
I doubt, frankly, that this will be enough to keep away the current lawsuits and the many, many more that I imagine are in the midst of being drafted. This has class action lawsuit written all over it.
And the more Intuit continues digging this hole, the worse it will get.
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Filed Under: free file, free tax filings, sasan goodarzi, taxes, turbotax
Companies: intuit
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Will it stay that way come next tax season?
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Re: Stay that way
Well that big hole won't dig itself, so you'd best get Intuit.
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Re: Re: Stay that way
Not only a poor joke (puns are the worst) but unrelated to the post replied to. Apparently chose to reply to the first post for greater exposure of his biting wit. Poorly done, sir. Poorly done.
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Re: Re: Re: Stay that way
I liked it. So what if not perfectly 'timed'
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Lawyers get Rich, and Intuit is still Richer
Unfortunately, even after a class action, they will still have made more off this scheme than they will pay out, and the taxpayers still won't have a free option provided by the IRS. This is still a win-win for Intuit. What hit they take in PR will have been lost by tax time next year, so even public shaming isn't even a good motivator for these crooks.
This is unfortunately just the 'cost of doing business' to them. Their gamble got found out and they lose a few pennies.
I use TaxAct and while its price has risen sharply over the last couple years, it is still a better option than Intuit
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Popcorn time.
Sasan Goodarzi might want to stop digging and admit to what they've done. It will probably go a lot easier for Intuit that way.
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Re: Popcorn time.
History seems to show otherwise. These guys who continue to spin while the plane goes down tend to escape via golden parachute.
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What a sad commentary on our flawed system of governance ... one is forced to pay a fee so that one can pay ones taxes.
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Re:
And I suppose "ones (sic) taxes" is a sad commentary on a flawed educational system...
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Re: Re:
Opps, I forgot an apostrophe - my bad.
English teachers are a pita.
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Bad execution overrides good intent — and that assumes the company ever had “good” intent, a proposition which the company itself has made hard to believe.
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Did
Did they let Trump use the free version?
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Re: Did
Every version is the free version when you hire people and then don't pay them.
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par for course
I used to work for Intuit at a location that was eventually shutdown.
Prior to closing the site, we were told repeatedly that the site would remain open. Up to and including the day we were told on site that it would be closed.
From what I could tell, no one admitted that the site was closing to the on site employee's until all of the employee's who were to be laid off were informed and signed their paperwork... ... I guess that the higher up brass felt that the site was 'planned to remain open' until all those employee's were dealt with... then they grouped up the rest and said, move or take severance since this since is now closed.
So, just par for course for Intuit
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what was I searching for again
So TurboTax is just trying to redirect search results for those of us that dont really know what we are looking for.
Is that why every time I do a search for thief, liar, and/or pompous windbag I get pictures of Sasan Goodarzi?
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Intuit wouldn't let me free file because I had a student loan interest credit. The cost for Intuit's paid service was about the same as the credit, so I just ended up filing without the credit.
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For free file, please proceed to page 5
It's a shame that the tax prep providers that actually do provide free federal returns are 'hidden' in search results. I've recommended TaxHawk to a few people, and they don't trust it, as being far down in search results is not a good sign of trustworthiness generally. I was skeptical myself when I went on the hunt a few years back when getting the run-around from the big players for a truly free file option.
That said, they all upsell aggressively...
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There's something about big financial companies.... they tend to start measuring everything by "is it profitable?"
"Is it legal?" "Is it moral?", and eventually even "can we keep getting away with it?" all remain unmooted.
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Re:
Nothin' personal, just business
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FFS
Hey, Dark One, that's twice now you've called it "robot.txt".
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How about we just have the flat tax. A simple postcard tax form quickly done. we can then do away with most all of these company's.
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Re:
But the American jobs!! Wont someone think of the outsourced American jobs.
/s
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Re:
Because then rich people get to hoard even more money while poor people get shafted. Anyone who thinks such a system is anything but a benefit for the rich is deluded.
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Re:
People should read up on the topic before asking about how cool it might be.
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Use of robots.txt [to keep Google out] has been fairly standard for decades--hardly a "crazy length" (for anyone).
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Re:
Sure, and if a change to robots.txt was the only issue at play, you'd have a point.
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found free to file. What they did then was keep hammering me with "you're gonna leave money on the table unless you pay" message. I looked into it. I started my entire return over twice. Then payed them because they acted like I was an idiot for not taking the money I would be giving up if I didn't pay. Well, I got no more money , and my return was lighter for having "payed' them. Shitty company, my ten year relationship with them is at an end.
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same here
I waited until the 14th to file my taxes, like I do every year. When I searched Google for Turbo Tax free, every link listed failed to take me to their free product. Since I can add, subtract, and read, I just changed my search to site:irs.gov and searched for tax forms. I then spent 30 minutes filling them in and then flagged down a mailman who was happy to accept my stamped envelope.
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Working for a living.
Believe it or not, some people have to work for a living and jobs don't exactly grow on trees.
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