Report: Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data

COLUMBIA, S.C. (CNN)—A congressional investigation has found some of the largest tax-prep companies spent years sharing financial data with tech giants.

The report details how TaxSlayer, H&R Block, and TaxAct allegedly gave out sensitive information to Meta and Google without consent or appropriate disclosures. That’s a potential violation of federal law.

According to the report, the companies shared details about filing status, adjusted gross income, and the size of tax refunds.

That information was sometimes misused for targeted advertising.

The tax-prep companies told lawmakers the data had been scrambled to help protect privacy.