The fact that TurboTax Free File is effectively hidden from Google could contribute to the low rate of use. In exchange for the IRS promising not to create its own free, online filing tool, Intuit, H&R Block and other companies signed a deal to offer Free File options to lower-income Americans. It instructs Google and other search engines to “index,follow.”Īn Intuit spokesman didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. (Special thanks to Larissa Williams on Twitter and Arkadiy Kulev on Reddit for pointing out the code.)Īnd here’s the main page, which, despite the “FREE Guaranteed” language, puts many users on track to pay. Here’s the page for TurboTax’s Free File edition.Īnd here’s the code Intuit put in hiding it. “Intuit’s tactics to reduce access to the Free File program and confuse taxpayers are outrageous,” he said. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement that he plans to raise Intuit’s misleading marketing with the IRS. In contrast, the TurboTax page that puts many users on track to pay signals to Google that it should be listed in search results. The code on TurboTax’s Free File site says “noindex,nofollow” - instructions for it not to show up in search results.

“Robots.txt is a big ‘No, don’t go any further’ sign on the web,” Spool said.

Without that code, Google and other search engines default to adding a site to their search results. It is typically used on pages that designers want to hide from the open internet, such as those that are for internal use only. The code in question, which can be found in a file called robots.txt or in an HTML tag, has to be actively added to a site, as Intuit has done.

Do not bring us traffic,’” said Jared Spool, a veteran web design and user experience expert. “It’s deliberately saying: ‘Google, we don’t want you here. Intuit has done that by adding code on its site telling Google and other search engines not to list TurboTax Free File in search results. There’s a new wrinkle: It turns out, Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, is deliberately hiding the truly free edition - TurboTax Free File - from Google Search. This week, we reported on how TurboTax uses deceptive design and misleading advertising to trick lower-income Americans into paying to file their taxes, even though they are eligible to do it for free. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit investigative newsroom based in New York. Business & Finance Click to expand menu.

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