TurboTax Resumes State Tax Filings

The company said the fraudulent returns did not result from a breach of its own systems.
Customer looks at a copy of TurboTax on sale at Costco in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. The software available for the 2012 tax season has been both beefed up and made easier to use. This will make the annual chore quicker, and lessen the chances of the missing big deductions and important tax credits. Close to 40 million taxpayers prepared their own returns online last year. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Customer looks at a copy of TurboTax on sale at Costco in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. The software available for the 2012 tax season has been both beefed up and made easier to use. This will make the annual chore quicker, and lessen the chances of the missing big deductions and important tax credits. Close to 40 million taxpayers prepared their own returns online last year. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

(Reuters) - Intuit Inc said its tax-preparation software TurboTax had resumed electronic filing of state tax returns late Friday following a temporary halt after noticing attempts to use stolen identity information to file fraudulent returns and claim refunds.

After an investigation by a third-party security expert, the company said the fraudulent returns did not result from a breach of its own systems and that it was adding additional security measures to combat fraudulent activities.

The filing of federal returns had not been affected, Intuit said.

Early on Friday, the company said the information used to file fraudulent returns was obtained from outside sources.

Intuit said it had turned off the e-filing of state tax returns on Thursday.

Minnesota's revenue department said on Friday it had stopped accepting tax returns submitted via TurboTax, but would continue to accept those filed through Intuit's professional tax preparation products such as Lacerte, Intuit Tax Online and ProSeries. (http://bit.ly/1v5OHUj)

The department said some taxpayers found that a return had already been filed when they logged in to submit their returns using TurboTax.

Intuit's shares closed down 4.2 percent at $87.83 on the Nasdaq on Friday, having gained 23.7 percent in the last 12 months.

(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri and Nayan Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian, Sriraj Kalluvila and Ken Wills)

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