Intuit's TurboTax would not be materially impacted from IRS-run tax prep option: BofA
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The paid and free filing offerings of TurboTax, owned by Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), would not be materially impacted from a government-run tax preparation service, Bank of America analyst Brad Sills wrote in a recent note. 
On Monday, INTU and H&R Block (HRB) shares fell markedly after a report that the Biden administration is considering creating a government-run tax filing portal that would provide an alternative to private tax preparation services.
While Sills acknowledged that TurboTax could lose some of its 46M filers to an IRS option, he laid out several benefits of free TurboTax filings that ultimately could retain filers, including: "1) automatic import of prior year tax data, 2) some audit guidance (audit support guarantee) included with free and 3) access to TurboTax online community help desk and FAQ and 4) automatic import of federal return data to state tax return."
Meanwhile, INTU and HRB each extended their losses out of the gate Tuesday, sliding 0.8% and 0.3%, respectively. 
The proposed government tax-filing portal will likely take many years to be developed and implemented, Compass Point analyst Ed Groshans said in a note. 
The IRS was said to be scheduled to release a report this week on the cost of an IRS free tax filing service, which "is the first of three milestones and is dependent on several other IRS strategic operating plan objectives and initiatives," Groshans said. According to the IRS' five-year roadmap, he added, "several of these dependencies are not projected to be completed by FY2028."
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