Mo’ Money Taxes Gets a Slap Down
North Carolina Commissioner of Banks Joseph Smith issued a consent order against Mo’ Money Taxes of North Carolina and Derrick Robinson (owner) on Feb. 8th, penalizing the tax chain for violating state laws on refund anticipation loans.
The consent order, (pdf), states that Mo’ Money of NC was offering RALs, even though they failed to register as a refund anticipation loan facilitator. Registration is required by North Carolina state law. Few states have a registration rule, but North Carolina is one of them. Mo’ Money, headquartered in Memphis, is a new entrant to the North Carolina market this year.
The complaint began when a watchdog consumer advocacy group ran across Mo’ Money’s advertisements. The ads draw from blaxploitation films (African-American mobs) for their themes. Actually, that’s not the full extent. Mo’ Money is an equal opportunist, with films that play upon stereotypes of Latinos as well as rural white people. Idiots are also singled out.
The consumer advocacy group entered a few of their local shops and found that there were none of the normal disclosures on their RALs. The law states simply that RAL price schedules must be posted. Mo’ Money’s walls were blank at every office that the group visited, save for one 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper with pricing on tax services. Oh, and those were high fees, by the way – as much as $315 for a basic 1040 with no deductions, no business income, and an EIC form.
OCOB was not happy about that. Their order has two penalties:
- Mo’ Money must pay a fine of $13,000 ($1,000 for each store) for failing to register. That money goes to the North Carolina Civil Forfeiture Fund.
- Mo’ Money must make an annual certification, for the next five years, that they have no “meritorius” complaints filed against their operation.
Mo’ Money cannot make any RALs until they register.Mo’ Money has since registered. Today, their web page is offline.
JP Morgan Chase provides the funding for their RALs. It will be interesting to see if JPM continues that relationship. By OCC guidelines, any RAL funder is required to verify that their tax partners are implement relevant laws. It appears to be the case that JPMorgan Chase was not fulfilling that duty. Now, wait for the next shoe to drop.
Cole
March 18, 2010
Wow this article is all wrong, I can’t believe the extent that NC will go to to try and keep a black operated company down.
mandown
April 29, 2010
i agree. in this day and time you can see who dictates what goes on in america. discrimination has many faces
melissa
June 16, 2010
are you kidding? naming a business "MO MONEY TAXES?" who the hell is goin to take you seriously. and if youre going to give it such a ridiculous name, atleast do the job RIGHT.
nothing to do with race. just unprofessionalism. plain and simple.
Renee campbell
June 26, 2011
This company is a rip off …They have done my taxes for the past 3years….This time the fees went up to almost $400 plus and I paided for my state taxes to be completed and only to my surprise they were not even filed but I paid them already….Whats so bad is the company has gone out of business phones cut off…Wonder who else is still waiting on your state tax return only to find out they never filed it…
D. heard
January 31, 2012
the company in atlanta isnt any better they….. always have new faces in the stores every year and the fees are thru the roof . they have signs saying they have this and that but they dont even file your state tax cuz im still waiting on 2010 state return
D. heard
January 31, 2012
the company in Atlanta isn’t any better they….. always have new faces in the stores every year and the fees are thru the roof . they have signs saying they have this and that but they don’t even file your state tax because i’m still waiting on 2010 state return…… who you know that have almost 600 dollars in fees and you noy filing RAPID
Erica
February 3, 2012
Yeah, this has nothing to do with a black owned company. This company has moved to Norfolk, Va and as of today there are many people angry and waiting outside this business for their money. The company seems to have closed the doors even though, according to them on the news last night, the money was dropped into their account already but a glitch was keeping them from dictating which amounts belonged to whom. Many, many people have been ripped off at this point. I am African American and would never go to a place like this, I went to H&R Block. If we want to stop feeling like we are discriminated against then it’s time to do things the right way and stop ripping our own people off. In this economy this is disasterous for a lot of people in the city who simply felt like the first two posters felt; go to an African American owned business in search of supporting their community only to be ripped off. Definitely is not a feather in my communities cap!