Today’s episode, well — it’s a ride. I’m talking to Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi, who’s built Intuit into a juggernaut business software company in part through a series of major acquisitions: TurboTax, MailChimp, CreditKarma, and loads more. There’s a lot of good Decoder material there, and we get into it. 

But it’s TurboTax, and the company’s tax lobbying efforts to protect it, that really drives a major narrative about Intuit, for better and worse. So you can bet I asked Sasan about all this, and it got a bit contentious. In fact, the company's chief communications officer even demanded we delete a portion of this interview over an exchange with Sasan on TurboTax. Don’t worry — we don’t do that here at The Verge. So expect to hear that section right up top, with the rest of the interview following after.

Links:

• Inside TurboTax’s 20-year fight to stop Americans from filing taxes for free| ProPublica
• TurboTax deliberately hid free file page from Google Search | ProPublica
• TurboTax maker Intuit spent millions in record lobbying blitz | OpenSecrets
• FTC: Intuit’s “free” TurboTax ads misled consumers | The Verge
• TurboTax isn’t allowed to say it’s ‘free’ anymore | The Verge
• Intuit owes you money if it made you pay for TurboTax “free” | The Verge
• IRS extends its Free File tax program for five more years | The Verge
• IRS Direct File set to expand availability in a dozen new states | IRS
• Mint is shutting down, and it’s pushing users toward Credit Karma | The Verge
• Intuit Mailchimp CEO Rania Succar on Decoder | Decoder
• Ethics Statement | The Verge

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/24037861

Credits: 

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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