(Media release from the Office of Georgia’s Attorney General Chris Carr):
Attorney General Chris Carr announced late last week that 145,788 Georgians who were tricked into paying for free tax services by TurboTax’s owner Intuit will soon begin receiving checks from a $141 million multistate settlement announced in May 2022. In total, Georgia will receive $4,450,496.83 for affected consumers, with 4.4 million Americans expected to receive checks nationwide. Eligible consumers will be contacted by email about the settlement and will not need to file a claim. Checks will be mailed throughout May 2023, beginning this week.
“Georgia will continue to hold accountable any business that seeks to exploit financially vulnerable consumers,” said Carr. “Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our Consumer Protection Division, more than $4.4 million in restitution will now be rightfully returned to the thousands of hardworking Georgians who were purposefully misled by TurboTax.”
In 2022, Carr announced a $141 million multistate agreement with Intuit for deceiving millions of low-income Americans into paying for tax services that should have been free. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have signed onto the agreement.
Eligible consumers include those who paid to file their federal tax returns through TurboTax for tax years 2016, 2017, and 2018 but were eligible to file for free through the IRS Free File Program. Consumers who are eligible for a payment will be notified by email by the settlement fund administrator, Rust Consulting. These consumers will receive a check in the mail automatically, without filing a claim.
The amount each consumer receives will be based on the number of tax years for which they qualify. Most consumers are expected to receive between $29 and $30. For more information about the settlement fund and who is covered, visit www.AGTurboTaxSettlement.com.