Intuit Inc.: 10-K Risk Factor Changes

Regulations related data privacy, cybersecurity, the collection, processing, storage, transfer and use of data, and the use of AI are evolving. Many jurisdictions in which we operate globally have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, data privacy legislation or regulations aimed at creating and enhancing individual privacy rights. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulates the collection, use, and retention of personal information by our offerings in the EU. In addition, in the absence of a unified federal privacy standard, a growing number of U.S. states have enacted or introduced data privacy laws and regulations. Several countries have established specific legal requirements for cross-border data transfers and governmental authorities and privacy advocates around the world continue to propose new regulatory actions concerning data protection. Moreover, several jurisdictions are considering regulatory frameworks for AI that implicate data protection laws. In our efforts to meet the various data privacy regulations that apply to us, we have made and continue to make certain operational changes to our products, business practices, and use of certain third party tools and vendors. Additionally, customer sensitivity to privacy continues to increase and our privacy statements and practices may create additional customer expectations about the collection, use, and sharing of personal information. In addition, the evolution of global privacy treaties and frameworks has created compliance uncertainty and increased complexity. For example, the judicial invalidation of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks that we relied on to transfer data has created additional compliance challenges for the transfer of EU personal data to the U.S. While the European Commission recently issued a decision that allows personal data to flow from the European Union to U.S. companies, the future of this framework is uncertain because it faces legal challenges in the European courts. Each of these privacy, security and data protection requirements could impose significant limitations on us, require changes to our business, require notification to customers or workers of a security incident, restrict our use or storage of personal Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K25 Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K25 Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K25 Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K 25 Tables of Contents Tables of Contents information, limit our use of third-party tools and vendors, or cause changes in customer purchasing behavior that may make our business more costly, less efficient or impossible to conduct, and may require us to modify our current or future products or services, which may make customers less likely to purchase our products and may harm our future financial results. Additionally, any actual or alleged noncompliance with these laws and regulations, or failure to meet customer expectations could result in negative publicity or harm to our reputation and subject us to investigations, claims or other remedies, including demands that we modify or cease existing business practices, and expose us to significant fines, penalties and other damages. We have incurred, and may continue to incur, significant expenses to comply with existing privacy and security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards or contractual obligations.

Regulations related to the provision of online services are continually evolving as federal, state and foreign governments adopt new or modify existing laws and regulations addressing data privacy, cybersecurity, the collection, processing, storage, transfer and use of data, and the use of AI. Many jurisdictions in which we operate globally have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, data privacy legislation or regulations aimed at creating and enhancing individual privacy rights. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulates the collection, use, and retention of personal information by our offerings in the EU. In addition, a growing number of U.S. states have enacted or introduced data privacy laws and regulations. Several countries have established specific legal requirements for cross-border data transfers and governmental authorities and privacy advocates around the world continue to propose new regulatory actions concerning data protection. For example, some jurisdictions are considering regulatory frameworks for AI, and generative AI, that implicate data protection laws. These laws and regulations may be inconsistent across jurisdictions and are subject to evolving and differing (sometimes conflicting) interpretations. In our efforts to meet the various data privacy regulations that apply to us, we have made and continue to make certain operational changes to our products, business practices, and use of certain third party tools and vendors. Additionally, customer sensitivity to privacy continues to increase and our privacy statements and practices may create additional customer expectations about the collection, use, and sharing of personal information. In addition, the evolution of global privacy treaties and frameworks has created compliance uncertainty and increased complexity. For example, the judicial invalidation of the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks that we relied on to transfer data has created additional compliance challenges for the transfer of EU personal data to the U.S. While a new EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework has been proposed, its ultimate adoption and precise requirements are uncertain. While we rely on alternative approved methods for the transfer of this data, ongoing legal challenges to these and other transfer mechanisms could cause us to incur costs or change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business. Each of these privacy, security and data protection requirements could impose significant limitations on us, require changes to our business, require notification to customers or workers of a security incident, restrict our use or storage of personal information, limit our use of third-party tools and vendors, or cause changes in customer purchasing behavior that may make our business more costly, less efficient or impossible to conduct, and may require us to modify our current or future products or services, which may make customers less likely to purchase our products and may harm our future financial results. Additionally, any actual or alleged noncompliance with these laws and regulations, or failure to meet customer expectations could result in negative publicity or harm to our reputation and subject us to investigations, claims or other remedies, including demands that we modify or cease existing business practices, and expose us to significant fines, penalties and other damages. Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K25 Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K25 Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K25 Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K 25 Tables of Contents Tables of Contents We have incurred, and may continue to incur, significant expenses to comply with existing privacy and security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards or contractual obligations.

We operate in industries that are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and frequent new product introductions. To meet the evolving needs and expectations of our customers and partners and attract and retain top technical talent, we must continue to innovate, develop and extend our platform, introduce new products and features, and enhance our ability to solve customer problems with emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence. If we are not able to do this successfully, we may face a competitive disadvantage. We have and will continue to devote significant resources to continue to develop our skills, tools and capabilities to capitalize on existing and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. There can be no assurance that we or our customers will realize the expected benefits from these investments. Legislation or regulatory changes in these areas may mandate changes in our products that make them less attractive to users and hinder our ability to leverage emerging technologies and build out our platform capabilities. Our consumer and professional tax businesses depend significantly on revenue from customers who return each year to use our updated tax preparation and filing software and services, including customers who use our free consumer tax products and whose tax scenarios evolve in subsequent years to require paid services. Encouraging customers to continue using our products in successive years can become more challenging unless new product releases provide features and functionality that have meaningful incremental value. As we continue to introduce and expand our new business models our customers may not perceive value in the additional benefits and services we offer and may choose not to pay for those additional benefits or we Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K16 Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K16 Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K16 Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K 16 Tables of Contents Tables of Contents may be unsuccessful in increasing customer adoption of these offerings or our risk profile may change, resulting in loss of revenue. When customers consent to the use of their data across our platform, we work to provide additional benefits to them through our existing offerings and the creation of new products and services. The growth of our business depends, in part, on our ability to successfully provide customers value in this way. If we are unable to clearly demonstrate the value of these new or upgraded products or services, our ability to build new data-driven products and services may be limited and our revenues may be harmed. In some cases, we may expend a significant amount of resources and management attention on offerings that do not ultimately succeed in their markets. We have encountered difficulty in launching new products and services in the past. If we misjudge customer needs in the future, our new products and services may not succeed and our revenues and earnings may be harmed. We have also invested, and in the future, expect to invest in new business models, technologies, geographies, strategies and initiatives. Such endeavors may involve significant risks and uncertainties, including a rapidly changing regulatory environment, distraction of management from current operations, expenses associated with the initiatives, inadequate return on investments, and social or ethical scrutiny. Because these new initiatives are inherently risky, they may not be successful and may harm our financial condition, operating results, or reputation.

We operate in industries that are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and frequent new product introductions. To meet the changing needs of our customers and partners and attract and retain top technical talent, we must continue to innovate, develop and extend our platform, new products and features, and enhance our ability to solve customer problems with emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. If we are not able to do this successfully, we may face a competitive disadvantage. We have and will continue to devote significant resources to continue to develop our skills, tools and capabilities to capitalize on existing and emerging technologies. Legislation or regulatory changes in these areas may mandate changes in our products that make them less attractive to users and hinder our ability to leverage emerging technologies and build out our platform capabilities. Our consumer and professional tax businesses depend significantly on revenue from customers who return each year to use our updated tax preparation and filing software and services. As our existing products mature, encouraging customers to purchase product upgrades becomes more challenging unless new product releases provide features and functionality that have meaningful incremental value. As we continue to introduce and expand our new business models, including offerings that are free to end users, our customers may not perceive value in the additional benefits and services we offer beyond our free Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K16 Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K16 Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K16 Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K 16 Tables of Contents Tables of Contents offering and may choose not to pay for those additional benefits or we may be unsuccessful in increasing customer adoption of these offerings or our risk profile may change, resulting in loss of revenue. We also provide additional customer benefits across our platform by utilizing customer data available to us through our existing offerings, and the growth of our business depends, in part, on our existing customers expanding their use of our products and services across our platform. If we are not able to effectively utilize our customers' data to provide them with value or develop and clearly demonstrate the value of new or upgraded products or services to our customers, our revenues may be harmed. In some cases, we may expend a significant amount of resources and management attention on offerings that do not ultimately succeed in their markets. We have encountered difficulty in launching new products and services in the past. If we misjudge customer needs in the future, our new products and services may not succeed and our revenues and earnings may be harmed. We have also invested, and in the future, expect to invest in new business models, technologies, geographies, strategies and initiatives. Such endeavors may involve significant risks and uncertainties, including a rapidly changing regulatory environment, distraction of management from current operations, expenses associated with the initiatives, inadequate return on investments, and social or ethical scrutiny. Because these new initiatives are inherently risky, they may not be successful and may harm our financial condition, operating results, or reputation.

The continued occurrence of cybersecurity incidents affecting governments, businesses and consumers in general indicates that we operate in an external environment where cybersecurity incidents are becoming increasingly common. If the global cybersecurity environment worsens, and there are increased instances of security breaches of third-party offerings where consumers’ data and sensitive information is compromised, consumers may be less willing to use online offerings, particularly offerings like ours in which customers often share sensitive financial data. Additionally, political uncertainty and military actions may subject us and our service providers to heightened risks of security incidents. In addition, the increased availability of data obtained as a result of cybersecurity incidents affecting third-party offerings could make our own products more vulnerable to fraudulent activity. Even if our products are not affected directly by such incidents, any such incident could damage our reputation and deter current and potential customers from adopting our products and services or lead customers to cease using online and connected software products to transact financial business altogether.

The continued occurrence of cyberattacks and data breaches on governments, businesses and consumers in general indicates that we operate in an external environment where cyberattacks and data breaches are becoming increasingly common. If the global cybersecurity environment worsens, and there are increased instances of security breaches of third-party offerings where consumers’ data and sensitive information is compromised, consumers may be less willing to use online offerings, particularly offerings like ours in which customers often share sensitive financial data. Additionally, political uncertainty and military actions, such as the Russia-Ukraine War, may subject us and our service providers to heightened risks of security incidents. In addition, the increased availability of data obtained as a result of breaches of third-party offerings could make our own products more vulnerable to fraudulent activity. Even if our products are not affected directly by such incidents, any such incident could damage our reputation and deter current and potential customers from adopting our products and services or lead customers to cease using online and connected software products to transact financial business altogether.

Developing and maintaining awareness of our brands and platform strategy is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our existing and future products and services and is an important element in attracting new customers and expanding our business with existing customers. Adverse publicity (whether or not justified) relating to events or activities attributed to us, members of our workforce, agents, third parties we rely on, or our users, may tarnish our reputation and reduce the value of our brands. Perceived social harm or unfairness of outcomes relating to the use of new and evolving technologies such as AI in our offerings, may result in reputational harm and liability, and may cause us to incur additional research and development costs to resolve such issues. Our brand value also depends on our ability to provide secure and trustworthy products and services, as well as our ability to protect and use our customers’ data in a manner that meets their expectations. In addition, a security incident that results in unauthorized disclosure of our customers’ sensitive data could cause material reputational harm. Damage to our reputation and loss of brand equity may reduce demand for our products or services and thus have an Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K17 Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K17 Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K17 Intuit Fiscal 2024 Form 10-K 17 Tables of Contents Tables of Contents adverse effect on our future financial results, as well as require additional resources to rebuild our reputation and restore the value of the brands and could also reduce our stock price.

Developing and maintaining awareness of our brands and platform strategy is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our existing and future products and services and is an important element in attracting new customers and expanding our business with existing customers. Adverse publicity (whether or not justified) relating to events or activities attributed to us, members of our workforce, agents, third parties we rely on, or our users, may tarnish our reputation and reduce the value of our brands. Perceived social harm or unfairness of outcomes relating to the use of new and evolving technologies such as AI in our offerings, may result in reputational harm and liability, and may cause us to incur additional research and development costs to resolve such issues. Our brand value also depends on our ability to provide secure and trustworthy products and services, as well as our ability to protect and use our customers’ data in a manner that meets their expectations. In addition, a security incident that results in unauthorized disclosure of our customers’ sensitive data could cause material reputational harm. Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K17 Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K17 Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K17 Intuit Fiscal 2023 Form 10-K 17 Tables of Contents Tables of Contents We have public environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments, including our goals to increase the diversity of our workforce, create and prepare individuals for jobs and have a positive impact on the climate. Our ability to achieve these goals is subject to numerous risks that may be outside of our control. Our failure or perceived failure to achieve our ESG goals or maintain ESG practices that meet evolving stakeholder expectations could harm our reputation, adversely impact our ability to attract and retain employees or customers, and expose us to increased scrutiny from the investment community and enforcement authorities. Our reputation also may be harmed by the perceptions that our customers, employees and other stakeholders have about our action or inaction on social, ethical, or political issues. Damage to our reputation and loss of brand equity may reduce demand for our products and services and thus have an adverse effect on our future financial results, as well as require additional resources to rebuild our reputation and restore the value of the brands and could also reduce our stock price.

We face intense competition in all of our businesses, and we expect competition to continue to intensify in the future. Our competitors and potential competitors range from large and established entities to emerging start-ups. Our competitors may introduce superior products and services, successfully use and deploy new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) that may reduce customer demand for our products or services, reduce prices, have greater technical, marketing and other resources, have greater name recognition, have larger installed bases of customers, have well-established relationships with our current and potential customers, advertise aggressively or beat us to market with new products and services. In addition, we face competition from existing companies with large established consumer user bases and broad-based platforms, who may change or expand the focus of their business strategies and marketing to target our customers, including small businesses, tax and personal financial management customers. We also face competition from companies with a variety of business models and monetization strategies, including increased competition from providers of free and low cost offerings, particularly in our tax, accounting, payments and consumer finance platform businesses. We have also introduced free offerings in several categories, but we may not be able to attract and retain customers as effectively as our competitors with different business models. In addition, other providers of free offerings may provide features that we do not offer and customers who have formerly paid for our products and services may elect to use our competitors’ free offerings instead. These competitive factors may diminish our revenue and profitability, and harm our ability to acquire and retain customers. Our consumer tax business also faces significant, increasing competition from the public sector, where we face the risk of federal and state taxing authorities implementing revenue-raising strategies that involve developing and providing government tax software or other government return preparation systems at public expense. These or similar programs have been and may continue to be introduced or expanded in the future, which may change the voluntary compliance tax system in ways that could cause us to lose customers and revenue. For example, the IRS has stated that it will make a free direct filing system, which it piloted in 2024, a permanent option in 2025 and will explore ways to expand eligibility for the program, including partnering with more states. Additionally, the legacy IRS Free File Program enables the IRS to offer free commercial tax software directly to qualifying taxpayers, and taxpayer adoption of this program could expand with increased awareness of and government support for the program. Through these or other programs, federal and state governments are or could become publicly funded direct competitors of the U.S. tax services industry and of Intuit. Government funded services that curtail or eliminate the role of taxpayers in preparing their own taxes could potentially have material and adverse revenue implications on us.

We face intense competition in all of our businesses, and we expect competition to remain intense in the future. Our competitors and potential competitors range from large and established entities to emerging start-ups. Our competitors may introduce superior products and services, successfully use and deploy new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) that may reduce customer demand for our products or services, reduce prices, have greater technical, marketing and other resources, have greater name recognition, have larger installed bases of customers, have well-established relationships with our current and potential customers, advertise aggressively or beat us to market with new products and services. In addition, we face competition from existing companies, with large established consumer user-bases and broad-based platforms, who may change or expand the focus of their business strategies and marketing to target our customers, including small businesses, tax and personal financial management customers. We also face competition from companies with a variety of business models, including increased competition from providers of free offerings, particularly in our tax, accounting, payments and personal finance platform businesses. In order to compete, we have also introduced free offerings in several categories, but we may not be able to attract customers as effectively as competitors with different business models. In addition, other providers of free offerings may provide features that we do not offer and customers who have formerly paid for our products and services may elect to use our competitors’ free offerings instead. These competitive factors may diminish our revenue and profitability, and harm our ability to acquire and retain customers. Our consumer tax business also faces significant potential competition from the public sector, where we face the risk of federal and state taxing authorities proposing revenue raising strategies that involve developing and providing government tax software or other government return preparation systems at public expense. These or similar programs may be introduced or expanded in the future, which may change the voluntary compliance tax system in ways that could cause us to lose customers and revenue. The IRS Free File Program is currently the sole means by which the IRS offers tax software directly to taxpayers and its continuation depends on a number of factors, including continued broad public awareness of and access to the free program and continued private industry donations, as well as continued government support. The Free File Program operates under an agreement that is scheduled to expire in October 2025. In May 2023, the IRS announced a plan to begin a pilot project for the 2024 filing season to assess customer support and technology needs of a direct online tax filing system and the IRS’s ability to overcome the potential operational challenges of such a system. Through this or other programs, the federal government could become a publicly funded direct competitor of the U.S. tax services industry and of Intuit. Government funded services that curtail or eliminate the role of taxpayers in preparing their own taxes could potentially have material and adverse revenue implications on us.

We are subject to an increasing number of local, state, federal, and international laws, regulations, and rules and standards. These relate to, without limitation, labor, advertising and marketing, tax, financial services, artificial intelligence, data privacy and security, electronic funds transfer, money transmission, lending, digital content, consumer protection, real estate, billing, e-commerce, promotions, quality of services, intellectual property ownership and infringement, import and export requirements, anti-bribery and anti-corruption, insurance, foreign exchange controls and cash repatriation restrictions, antitrust and competition, environmental, health and safety, and other regulated activities. These laws and regulations are not consistent across jurisdictions and are subject to change and evolving interpretations, and we expect significant new regulations will affect emerging technologies, such as AI. As we expand our products and services and evolve our business models, we have, and may in the future, become subject to additional changing regulations and heightened regulatory scrutiny. Our ability to adopt emerging technologies, including AI, and to innovate for our customers and operate our business may be harmed by the uncertainty and complexity created by the regulatory environment. For example, in May 2024, the European Parliament and the Council adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act (“AI Act”) that will regulate AI systems that affect individuals located in the EU. Compliance with the AI Act, and similar emerging laws, may add significant costs to our business and may require us to change certain business practices to comply. In addition, some of our offerings, such as our lending and payments products, require licenses to operate. Our inability to obtain or maintain a license, or to comply with current or new license requirements, may materially harm our ability to operate in specific jurisdictions or subject us to regulatory fines or penalties. The tax preparation industry continues to receive heightened attention from federal and state governments. New legislation, regulation, public policy considerations, changes in the cybersecurity environment, litigation by the government or private entities, changes to or new interpretations of existing laws may result in greater oversight of the tax preparation industry, restrict the types of products and services that we can offer or the prices we can charge, or otherwise cause us to change the way we operate our tax businesses or offer our tax products and services. We may not be able to respond quickly to such regulatory, legislative and other developments, and these changes may in turn increase our cost of doing business and limit our revenue opportunities. In addition, if our practices are not consistent with new interpretations of existing laws, we may become subject to lawsuits, penalties, and other liabilities that did not previously apply. We are also required to comply with a variety of state revenue agency standards in order to successfully operate our tax preparation and electronic filing services. Changes in state-imposed requirements by one or more of the states, including the required use of specific technologies or technology standards, may significantly increase the costs of providing those services to our customers and may prevent us from delivering a quality product to our customers in a timely manner. Any perceived or actual failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations, and rules could negatively impact our reputation and expose us to legal liability, fines, penalties, or require us to change our products or business operations. In addition, evolving laws and regulations may require us to change our business practices or modify our compliance programs in order to continue operating our businesses. Any of the foregoing may adversely affect our ability to operate and may harm our results of operations.

We are subject to federal, state, local and international laws and regulations that affect our and our customers' activities, including, without limitation, labor, advertising and marketing, tax, financial services, data privacy and security, electronic funds transfer, money transmission, lending, digital content, consumer protection, real estate, billing, e-commerce, promotions, quality of services, intellectual property ownership and infringement, import and export requirements, anti-bribery and anti-corruption, insurance, foreign exchange controls and cash repatriation restrictions, anti-competition, environmental, health and safety, and other regulated activities. There have been significant new regulations and heightened focus by the government on many of these areas. As we expand our products and services and evolve our business models, both domestically and internationally, we may become subject to additional government regulation or increased regulatory scrutiny. For example, the regulation of emerging technologies that we may incorporate into our offerings, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, is still an evolving area, and it is possible that we could become subject to new regulations that negatively impact our operations and results. Further, regulators (both in the U.S. and in other jurisdictions in which we operate) may adopt new laws or regulations, change existing regulations, or their interpretation of existing laws or regulations may differ from ours. We have in the past and may in the future be subject to regulations in response to global pandemics and endemics that may impact our business, our workforce, and workplaces. Such restrictions have disrupted and may continue to disrupt our business operations and limit our ability to perform critical functions. The tax preparation industry continues to receive heightened attention from federal and state governments. New legislation, regulation, public policy considerations, changes in the cybersecurity environment, litigation by the government or private entities, changes to or new interpretations of existing laws may result in greater oversight of the tax preparation industry, restrict the types of products and services that we can offer or the prices we can charge, or otherwise cause us to change the way we operate our tax businesses or offer our tax products and services. We may not be able to respond quickly to such regulatory, legislative and other developments, and these changes may in turn increase our cost of doing business and limit our revenue opportunities. In addition, if our practices are not consistent with new interpretations of existing laws, we may become subject to lawsuits, penalties, and other liabilities that did not previously apply. We are also required to comply with a variety of state revenue agency standards in order to successfully operate our tax preparation and electronic filing services. Changes in state-imposed requirements by one or more of the states, including the required use of specific technologies or technology standards, may significantly increase the costs of providing those services to our customers and may prevent us from delivering a quality product to our customers in a timely manner.