Intuit agrees to $3.5-million reimbursement plan for some Virginia customers

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that the state has secured $3.5 million from TurboTax owner, Intuit Inc., after it falsely advertised free tax services to Virginia consumers. The state will distribute the money to consumers who were deceived.

To compensate those who were unfairly charged, Intuit will pay $141 million in restitution as part of a multi-state agreement. Along with the agreement, the company also will suspend TurboTax’s “free, free, free” advertisements that deceived customers into paying for free tax-filing services.

ProPublica initially reported that the company was using digital means to take low-income consumers away from federally-supported free tax services and into their own commercial products.

“TurboTax took advantage of and deceived Virginians,” Miyares said in a statement. “I’m proud of the role my office played to secure substantial relief for the Virginia consumers that TurboTax misled. My office will continue to aggressively go after bad actors that hurt Virginia consumers, because they must be held accountable.”

Under the agreement, Intuit will provide restitution to millions of consumers who started using TurboTax’s Free Edition for tax years 2016 through 2018 and were told that they had to pay to file, even though they were eligible to file for free using the version of TurboTax offered as part of the IRS Free File program.

Consumers are expected to receive a direct payment of approximately $30 for each year that they were deceived into paying for filing services. Impacted consumers will automatically receive notices and a check by mail.