BALTIMORE — 71,950 Maryland residents may soon receive some restitution from TurboTax after allegedly deceiving customers about their free tax service.
“TurboTax lured potential customers with promises of free tax filing services, when it knew most of those customers would not qualify for those services,” said Maryland Attorney General Frosh. “Once those customers were hooked, TurboTax and its parent company, Intuit, converted those customers to another service for a fee. We are pleased that those customers who paid for services that they should have received for free will receive restitution as part of our settlement.”
Maryland will end up with more than $2 million out of the $141 million settlement TurboTax made with multiple states.
That amount covers the tax years between 2016 and 2018. It will equate to each Maryland taxpayer who was impacted receiving about $30.
MORE: How to find free help and the company accused of falsely advertising free services
It's unclear when those disbursements will start to going out, but within the next 90 days a claims administrator will be assigned to finalize a timeline.
The settlement primarily focuses on an advertised product the company calls “TurboTax Free Edition.”
According to the Federal Trade Commission, approximately two-thirds of tax filers can't use the so called free service offered by TurboTax because it only accepts simple tax documents like 1040s, but not other forms such as 1099s.
Back in March, the Federal Trade Commission took Intuit Inc., the owner TurboTax,to court over similar misconduct allegations.
SEE ALSO: Federal Trade Commission takes TurboTax to court, alleging "bogus" advertisements
That however is separate from this latest settlement, which stems from a multi-state investigation and did not involve any lawsuit.
Eligible consumers will automatically receive checks in the mail. Checks will be mailed throughout May 2023.
For more information about who is covered by the settlement and information about the settlement fund, consumers can visit here.
