[T]he success of TurboTax rests on a shaky foundation, one that could collapse overnight if the U.S. government did what most wealthy countries did long ago and made tax filing simple and free for most citizens.

For more than 20 years, Intuit has waged a sophisticated, sometimes covert war to prevent the government from doing just that, according to internal company and IRS documents and interviews with insiders. The company unleashed a battalion of lobbyists and hired top officials from the agency that regulates it. From the beginning, Intuit recognized that its success depended on two parallel missions: stoking innovation in Silicon Valley while stifling it in Washington. Indeed, employees ruefully joke that the company’s motto should actually be “compromise without integrity.”

The Intuit board of directors:

Scott Cook
Suzanne Nora Johnson
Dennis Powell
Brad Smith
Thomas Szkutak
Jeff Weiner
Rick Dalzell
Eve Burton
Raul Vazquez
Deborah Liu
Sasan Goodarzi

via Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free — ProPublica