I. | FFI Members are prohibited from engaging in any practice that would cause the Member’s Free File Landing Page to be excluded from an organic internet search. Each FFI Member shall standardize the naming of its Free File offer listed on the IRS Free File Website and the Member Free File Landing Page so taxpayers can link to the Member's Free File Landing Page from organic searches. Section 4.33 is hereby amended to add the following sentence at the end: "Each Member will use the following naming convention for its Free File offer listed on the IRS Free File website and displayed at the top of the Member's Free File Landing Page: 'IRS Free File program delivered by (Member company name or product name)."' |
II. | The following sentence in Article 2 of the MOU is hereby stricken from the MOU: "In recognition of this commitment, the federal government has pledged to not enter the tax return software and e-file services marketplace.” |
Ill. | FFI Members must implement procedures designed to ensure that all Free File returns e-filed with the IRS through the Free File program are set with the Free File indicator only when taxpayers meet the eligibility requirements of the Member's Free File offer. Returns that do not qualify for the Member's Free File offer must not be transmitted with the Free File indicator. FFI |
IV. | FFI shall also provide to the IRS by November 30th of each calendar year the aggregate count of all |
V. | FFI shall provide to the IRS a copy of their independent auditor ' s aggregate findings from the initial website review of the Member Landing Pages at least 2 days prior to Free File' s " go live" date, and the aggregate findings from the mid-year website review of the Member Free File Landing Pages by no later than March 30th of each year. |
VI. | Pursuant to Section 4.19.2, all FFI Members shall include the non-qualifying message as the first option presented with a link to return taxpayers to IRS Free File Website at the earliest feasible point before the e-file signature page/completion of the tax return. |
VII. | Beginning in February 2020, FFI Members shall use a statistically valid methodology to randomly select and uniformly survey taxpayers who successfully e-filed a tax return through the Free File program. This is the first step of an iterative process to survey taxpayers regarding their customer experience and satisfaction. Members shall survey taxpayers throughout the filing season and FFI shall provide an anonymized aggregate quarterly recap of the findings to the IRS. FFI shall also provide an annual summary report of the findings to the IRS by November 30, 2020, and every year thereafter. FFI will periodically review and assess survey results. Survey data may only be publicly released in anonymized and aggregated forms. |
VIII. | Consistent with the obligations set forth in all prior Free File memorandums of understanding and the IRS Agreement, as amended: (A) nothing in this Addendum, the MOU, or the IRS Agreement limits or changes the right of Members to engage in any business activity outside of the IRS Free File Program, in the same manner as they could if they were not participating in the Free File program, including without limitation all marketing, advertising or promotion of commercial tax preparation software or services offered at no cost or for a fee outside of Free File Program offerings to any taxpayers; and (B) a Member's participation in the Free File Program does not impose on the Member any marketing or other obligation with regard to the IRS Free File Program, except as explicitly set forth in this Addendum and the MOU. |
IX. | A new section will be added to Article 10 of the MOU to read as follows: |
X. | FFI and its Members are not agents for the IRS and the IRS is not an agent for FFI or any Member. |
XI. | The definition of "Services" in Section 1.13 of the MOU is amended by striking the existing language and substituting the following: |
XII. | The fourth "Whereas" clause in the 8th MOU shall be amended to reflect that FFI is organized as a 501(c)(4). The language stating that FFI is a "501( C) (3)" shall be struck. |