TurboTax spent years and millions to keep free tax filing from existing.

Intuit makes TurboTax, the software tens of millions of Americans use to file their taxes every April. Here is the strange part: filing is legally required, and the IRS already has most of your numbers. So why does a private company sit between you and a form the government forces you to submit?

The straight road was never banned by physics. It was signed away. The only open route runs through the box.: You · the IRS · the short way · signed: no free IRS tool · 2002 · TurboTax · paid · the only open road

In 2002, Intuit and other tax-prep firms cut a deal with the IRS called Free File. The industry would offer free filing to lower-income taxpayers. In exchange, the IRS agreed not to build its own free tool. Then, ProPublica found, Intuit buried its Free File page, even adding code to hide it from Google, and steered eligible users toward paid products. A 2022 multi-state settlement forced Intuit to pay $141 million. The IRS eventually launched its own free Direct File pilot anyway.

Some moats aren't built in the market. They're written into the rules.