On the heels of Minnesota putting a halt on accepting returns filed using TurboTax over fraud concerns, the tax-preparation software company has disabled all state tax return e-filings as of yesterday. The company acknowledged that it has identified "an increase in suspicious filings," USA Today reports; the situations apparently involve stolen personal data (taken from someplace other than TurboTax's internal systems) that was then used to file the returns. The Wall Street Journal reports that Utah, Alabama, and Georgia have issued press releases related to suspicions of fraud, with Alabama officials having spotted up to 16,000 worrisome returns.
What Intuit CEO Brad Smith has to say, per a press release: "We've identified specific patterns of behavior where fraud is more likely to occur. We're working with the states to share that information and remedy the situation quickly." If you've already filed with TurboTax, do nothing, says the company: The AP reports that state tax returns already filed when the halt began yesterday will be transmitted as soon as the halt is lifted; federal returns can still currently be processed via the software. Intuit expects to start processing state returns again today with increased fraud protections, per a rep. (More TurboTax stories.)
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