Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) today announced the details regarding its participation in the Free File Alliance, a one-year-old public-private partnership between the IRS and private industry software companies that provides free tax preparation and e-filing services to disadvantaged and underserved taxpayers.
For 2004, which is Intuit's second year participating in the Free File Alliance, the company will donate its TurboTax® for the WebSM services to federal taxpayers who:
- Qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, Or
- During calendar year 2003:
- Were age 62 or older (taxpayer or spouse), or
- Were age 22 or younger (taxpayer or spouse), or
- Served active military duty (including reservists and National Guard).
If these taxpayers also live in one of the more than a dozen states that sponsor a state Free File Alliance, modeled after the IRS' program, they can also prepare and file their state return online for free with TurboTax for the Web.
"We are proud to once again donate TurboTax services to those working families who qualify for the earned income tax credit," said Tom Allanson, senior vice president of Intuit's consumer tax division. "In addition to helping this group, we will donate our online tax preparation and filing services to other underserved populations that can particularly benefit from this free service, many of whom have been slower to use electronic tax filing in the past. By focusing on specific populations versus basing eligibility almost exclusively on income thresholds, we are making it easier for the eligible taxpayers to understand whether they qualify."
In addition to serving a philanthropic purpose, Intuit supports the Free File Alliance because it commits participating governments to not provide their own online tax preparation and filing services to taxpayers, but instead rely on public-private partnership to serve those in need. Intuit has donated TurboTax for the Web to lower-income and underserved taxpayers since 1998.
Biweekly Updates Throughout the Season
To provide better information throughout the tax season, Intuit will issue biweekly reports for its consumer tax products and services. Starting next month, Intuit will provide season-to-date end-user purchase data through the previous Saturday, representing Intuit's best assessment of unit sales at that time. This data includes:
- TurboTax federal desktop software units sold through at retail,
- TurboTax federal desktop software units sold direct,
- TurboTax for the Web federal units sold, and
- TurboTax for the Web federal units donated through the Free File Alliance.
Intuit expects to issue its first report before the market opens on Jan. 15, 2004. Subsequent reports will be issued before market every other Thursday through the end of the tax season. The expected dates for the announcements are: Jan. 15, 2004; Jan. 29, 2004; Feb. 12, 2004; Feb. 26, 2004; March 11, 2004; March 25, 2004; April 8, 2004 and April 22, 2004.
