Good morning,
Intuit, owner of TurboTax, is using a cheeky ad campaign to convince you to “break up” with your tax professional.
It’s part of a promotion for TurboTax’s “Full Service plan” that includes a human tax preparer, but not everyone is happy about it. After organizations representing tax professionals complained about the “insulting” portrayal, Intuit said this week it would “evolve” away from the campaign.
While tax preparers compete with online services like TurboTax, they’re also Intuit’s customers. The company, which had revenue last year of $16.3 billion, also owns QuickBooks and other services for professionals. In fact, Intuit’s small business and self-employed group was the company’s fastest-growing segment in 2023.
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Mortgage rates reached their highest level since August last week, defying conventional wisdom after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years. Mortgage rates correlate strongly with changes in the 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield, which has shot up in recent weeks, a potential signal that ultra-safe government bonds are less enticing to investors.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles says it has agreed to pay $880 million to settle 1,353 claims of clergy sexual abuse dating back to the 1940s, which the victims’ attorneys say is the largest such settlement with a Catholic archdiocese. The settlement brings the cumulative payout that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to give alleged abuse victims to $1.5 billion, including $740 million from previous settlements, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Gerald Shvartsman, hides from photojournalists using an umbrella after exiting Federal Court, Thursday, July 20, 2023, in New York.
An investor was sentenced to almost two years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to a $22 million insider trading scheme involving an effort to take Truth Social parent company Trump Media & Technology Group public, Bloomberg reported. Gerald Shvartsman was sentenced for using confidential information about blank check firm Digital World Acquisition Corp.’s merger with Trump........