November 15, 2007

Doylestown, PA - The Doylestown law firm Cooley & Handy has filed a class-action lawsuit against major players in the tax software industry- Intuit Inc., H&R Block and Free File Alliance- seeking billions of dollars in damages. Cooley & Handy filed this suit Monday in the U.S. District Court jointly with the Philadelphia law firm Feldman, Shepherd, Wohlgelernter, Tanner & Weinstock. The suit claims the tax software makers charged users illegal fees to electronically file their federal tax returns with the IRS. They were able to do it because they had formed a “cartel” that forced the IRS into an agreement in which it promised not to create similar software, the suit alleges.

“This Agreement wrongfully “privatized the IRS’s quintessential government task of developing, receiving, collecting, and processing tax returns, allowing cartel members to reap profits by charging taxpayers,” the suit states. The lawsuit asks the court to prohibit tax software manufacturers from charging fees for electronic filing of tax returns and refund all fees previously collected. Anyone who has used tax software manufactured by Intuit, H&R Block or Free File Alliance is automatically a member of the class and does not need to join the lawsuit to receive damages.