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posted by martyb on Wednesday July 17 2019, @08:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the making-money dept.

Trump’s Tax Law Threatened TurboTax’s Profits. So the Company Started Charging the Disabled, the Unemployed and Students.

The 2017 tax overhaul vastly expanded the number of people who could file simplified tax returns, a boon to millions of Americans.

But the new law directly threatened the lucrative business of Intuit, the maker of TurboTax.

Although the company draws in customers with the promise of a "free" product, its fortunes depend on getting as many customers as possible to pay. It had been regularly charging $100 or more for returns that included itemized deductions for mortgage interest and charitable donations. Under the new law, many wealthier taxpayers would no longer be filing that form, qualifying them to use the company's free software.

Intuit executives came up with a way to preserve the company's hefty profit margins: It began charging more low-income people. Which ones? Individuals with disabilities, the unemployed and people who owe money on student loans, all of whom use tax forms that TurboTax previously included for free.


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  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 17 2019, @10:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 17 2019, @10:48PM (#868266)

    Lynyrd Skynyrd was totally misunderstood by a lot of people!

    The reason reporters are scouring online forums, fanpage comments, and Twitter is because the last surviving original member of the hard-to-spell band which brought you Southern anthems "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama", Gary Rossington, has made a pledge to stop associating the band (himself) with the Confederate flag. It's a big move since part of the reason the Confederate flag has remained popular (at least in rock n roll) was because Lynyrd Skynyrd's use of the flag in concerts and memorabilia (back when Rossington didn't think it was associated with the KKK and raging racists). "Through the years, people like the KKK and skinheads kinda kidnapped the Dixie or Southern flag from its tradition and the heritage of the soldiers, that's what it was about," Rossington told CNN earlier this month. "We didn't want that to go to our fans or show the image like we agreed with any of the race stuff or any of the bad things." Lynyrd Skynyrd giving up the Confederate flag, Neil Young being sober--there's totally a concert joke in here somewhere.

    Woopsie

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