The puzzle of child-care costs

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial insights, gathered from around the web:

When 'free' filing isn't free

Intuit knows it is deceiving customers with "free" tax-filing services that have made the company billions, said Justin Elliott and Paul Kiel at ProPublica. In recent years, Intuit has "unleashed a battalion of lobbyists" to persuade lawmakers to stop the IRS from creating a no-cost tax-filing option that might compete with its TurboTax. The company also hired designers, engineers, marketers, and data scientists to work on how to "monetize free." To claim some write-offs, such as the student loan interest deduction, Intuit's so-called Free File requires ­upgrades — a trap "that can push customers lured with the promise of 'free' into paying, sometimes more than $200." Knowing that customers who've already started on their taxes will often pay rather than starting anew, Intuit buries paywalls that pop up "only when the taxpayer is deep into the filing process."

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Own the gap in your résumé

"How long can you step out of the workforce without sinking your career?" asked Sue Shellenbarger at The Wall Street Journal. Longer than you might think. In this tight labor market, "employers are rushing to interview applicants with résumé gaps as long as two years." That would have been unheard-of a decade ago, when a six-month break was enough to sink a candidate. Career re-entry programs have multiplied in recent years, providing "mentoring, coaching, and networking help for professionals who have been away from the workforce." Don't apologize for temporarily stepping out of your career path. "Job applicants returning from breaks need to own the gap." Explain "with confidence why you were away, then shift the focus to future contributions."

The puzzle of child-care costs

Child care in the United States has become "ruinously expensive," said Katie Reilly and Belinda Luscombe at Time. "In 28 states and the District of Columbia, one year of infant care, on average, sets parents back as much as a year at a four-year public college." Child-care costs nationally average between $9,000 and $9,600 a year, but "many parents spend far more." Child-care obligations forced nearly 2 million parents to leave work, change jobs, or turn down a job offer in 2016, and cost the U.S. economy $57 billion every year. The most confounding part of the problem: Despite the high costs for parents, caregiving remains a very poorly paid job. "For those who show up on the books, the median annual income is only $23,240."