H&R Block, Intuit Shares Swoon Tuesday As Musk-Ramaswamy Co-Chaired DOGE Said To Be Mulling Free Mobile Tax App: Retail Sentiment Nosedives

Shares of Intuit, Inc. ($INTU) and H&R Block, Inc. ($HRB) plunged hard on Tuesday after a Washington Post report said The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) set up by President-elect Donald Trump is eyeing a mobile app that would allow filing of taxes with the Internal Revenue Service free of charges.

Intuit shares fell 5.10% to a two-week low of $644.17 on Tuesday and H&R Block plunged a steeper 8.20% before settling at $55.40, their lowest level since early August.

Mountain View, California-based Intuit offers tax-preparation software TurboTax and accounting software package QuickBooks, among others. H&R Block, founded in 1955 and headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is a tax preparation company operating in the U.S., Canada and Australia. It offers H&R Block Tax Software for tax preparations.

DOGE is headed by Tesla, Inc. ($TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and ex-pharma executive Vivek Ramaswamy. The new panel has been given the mandate to cut down government spending and reduce federal red-tapism. 

The duo reportedly discussed overhauling the tax system to let Americans file their taxes through a mobile app, thereby changing the way taxpayers interact with the government, Post reported.

The report said it is still unclear about how the rumored move will connect with the Democratic Party’s initiatives along the same direction.

Under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the Biden administration provided $15 million in funding to the IRS to design an IRS-run direct e-file system, called DirectFile. A pilot program was run for residents of 12 states to file their returns electronically for free in the 2024 tax filing season. This facility is set to be expanded to 24 states in the 2025 season. 

HRB sentiment and message volume November 20, 2024, premarket as of 7:25 am ET | Source: Stocktwits

Retail sentiment toward H&R Block (3/100) fell to a one-year low in the ‘extremely bearish’ zone.

INTU sentiment and message volume November 20, 2024, premarket as of 7:25 am ET | Source: Stocktwits

 Intuit (23/100) also turned ‘extremely bearish’ on the development, with retail chatter growing louder. 

H&R Block shares are up about 17% for the year-to-date period compared to a more modest 3.7% gain for Intuit.