Intuit has creating a deal with LendingClub Corp. to market Intuit’s TurboTax seasonal service to LendingClub’s contacts.

The deal resulted in an email marketing effort delivered on Jan. 30. It is not clear whether there will be additional marketing by LendingClub for TurboTax this tax season.

The LendingClub solicitation offers consumers the opportunity to file their Federal and State taxes for free with TurboTax’s “Federal Free Edition.” (We are not quite sure how a “free edition” could become free, but that’s another matter entirely.)

What is odd about the LendingClub offer is that it has nothing to do with … lending. This is a pure tax-related marketing effort, and we wonder why LendingClub felt compelled to offer it, beyond presumably to monetize its marketing list.

LendingClub went public in December 2014 and had a market capitalization of just under $7 billion at presstime. The stock [ticker: LC] at around $19 per share is about 19% lower than its IPO price. Last week, LendingClub announced that it was entering into a partnership to provide financing to Google’s resellers, service providers and consultants in what can be described as a captive financing arrangement for small business loans.