The TurboTax consent form is a pop-up that asks permission to use or share your tax return information for marketing, and you can decline it without any effect on your ability to prepare, print, or e-file your return.1Intuit TurboTax Community. Does the Consent to Disclosure of Your Tax Return Information Need to Be Signed for TurboTax to File Federal law requires tax software to ask before touching your data for anything beyond preparing the return itself, which is why the screen interrupts your workflow.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 7216 – Disclosure or Use of Information by Preparers of Returns
Consent to Use and Consent to Disclosure
TurboTax presents two separate prompts, and Treasury Regulation 301.7216-3 requires them to appear separately because a single document cannot authorize both uses and disclosures at once.3GovInfo. Internal Revenue Service, Treasury 301.7216-3 They cover different things.
Consent to Use lets Intuit analyze your return data internally — income, deductions, filing status, refund amount — to recommend its own products. Your figures might be used to personalize offers for a high-interest savings account or for Credit Karma, an Intuit subsidiary.4Minnesota House of Representatives. TurboTax Wants to Use Your 2024 Tax Return Data to Pitch You Ads The data stays inside Intuit.
Consent to Disclosure goes further. It authorizes TurboTax to transmit your tax return information to outside parties for their own purposes. The form must name the specific recipients and describe exactly what each will receive your data for; blanket authorizations do not meet the legal standard.3GovInfo. Internal Revenue Service, Treasury 301.7216-3 Salary, refund amount, and whether you claimed certain deductions are examples of details that may be shared with Intuit’s affiliates for direct marketing.4Minnesota House of Representatives. TurboTax Wants to Use Your 2024 Tax Return Data to Pitch You Ads
Before clicking Accept on either one, open the scrollable text box or hyperlink on the screen and check which specific data points are listed and which recipients are named. The regulation requires each consent to identify the exact information involved and the particular purpose it will serve.3GovInfo. Internal Revenue Service, Treasury 301.7216-3
What Happens If You Decline
Nothing. Declining either consent does not stop you from completing, printing, or e-filing your return.1Intuit TurboTax Community. Does the Consent to Disclosure of Your Tax Return Information Need to Be Signed for TurboTax to File The software prepares the return the same way either way. The consent screens exist only to ask permission for marketing-related data use.
Federal rules explicitly prohibit a preparer from conditioning its services on your agreement to share data.3GovInfo. Internal Revenue Service, Treasury 301.7216-3 A consent obtained that way would be involuntary and legally invalid, so TurboTax has to let you decline and keep filing.
How to Fill It Out If You Accept
The form is short. Type your full legal name exactly as it appears on the return. That typed name is your electronic signature and qualifies under IRS guidance and the federal E-SIGN Act.5Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions for IRS E-file Signature Authorization The software records the date, which starts the consent period.
Each consent has its own I Accept and I Decline options. They are independent, so you can accept one and decline the other. After you make your choice, click Continue or Next and watch for a confirmation message that the selection was saved.
TurboTax should offer a PDF copy of any consent you sign. Download or print it. You will need that copy later if you want to confirm what you agreed to or revoke it.
How Long Consent Lasts and How to Revoke
The form should state its duration. If it doesn’t, the default under federal regulations is one year from the date you signed.6eCFR. 26 CFR 301.7216-3 – Disclosure or Use Permitted Only With the Taxpayer’s Consent Any duration the form specifies overrides that default, so read the fine print before accepting.
You can revoke a consent at any time. The regulation requires the preparer to give you a copy of the signed consent when it is executed, and that copy is your reference for what to withdraw.3GovInfo. Internal Revenue Service, Treasury 301.7216-3 To revoke, contact TurboTax support through your Intuit account and ask that the specific consent be withdrawn. Save any confirmation you receive.
If You Filed Through IRS Free File
Users of TurboTax through the IRS Free File program are covered by a more restrictive privacy policy. Under it, Intuit will not share your Free File data with partners or financial companies for joint marketing, will not use it to market other Intuit products, and will not share it with outside parties for their own marketing.7Intuit. IRS Free File Program Delivered by TurboTax Privacy Statement The consent prompts that appear in the paid version are largely a non-issue in the Free File version because data sharing for marketing is already ruled out.
Why the Prompt Exists
Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code makes it a federal crime for a tax return preparer, including software companies, to use or disclose your tax return information for unauthorized purposes.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 7216 – Disclosure or Use of Information by Preparers of Returns Section 6713 adds civil penalties of $250 per unauthorized disclosure or use, capped at $10,000 per year, with a higher tier of $1,000 per incident and a $50,000 annual cap when identity theft is involved.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6713 – Disclosure or Use of Information by Preparers of Returns Those consequences are the reason the consent screens exist, and they are the reason each consent has to be knowing, voluntary, and specific.