Congress Scraps Provision to Restrict IRS from Competing with TurboTax

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Congressional leaders are planning to scrap a provision of an IRS reform bill making permanent the Free File deal between the government and private tax filing companies, torpedoing a long-sought goal by industry giant Intuit, the maker of TurboTax. The development, first reported by Politico Pro and confirmed to ProPublica by a House Republican staffer, comes two months after an outcry sparked by our story on the Free File provision in a bill called the Taxpayer First Act. The IRS said in May that it was launching an internal review of the program, following our stories on how Intuit, HR Block and other companies deliberately hid their Free File editions from search engines, making it harder for taxpayers to find them.

Source: www.propublica.org