H&R Block confirmed that it will not offer refund anticipation loans during the 2012 tax season. Block did not have RALs last year.

New Block CEO Bill Cobb attributed the preparers willingness to go into the season without RALs to (more…)

The details can be extracted from the firm’s two most recent annual reports.

There was a significant change to how Block ran its tax business in 2011. During the most recent tax season, Block did not offer any refund anticipation loans. Block, through a partnership with Household Finance, was the first tax company to offer the tax refund loan. Last year, HSBC pulled out of the market. Block reported $146 million in fee (more…)

The US Department of Justice filed an anti-trust lawsuit this morning that seeks to prevent H&R Block from buying Tax Act.

Block agreed to buy 2nd Story Solutions (“2SS’), the corporate parent of Tax Act, for $287.5 million on October 13, 2010.

At issue is the level of competition in digital tax preparation. Block and TaxAct follow Intuit in the tax prep market. Were (more…)

Although any fate for Jackson Hewitt is far from certain, it might be a good time to speculate about how things will be next year.

Jackson Hewitt stock will be delisted from the NYSE on Monday.

Even the General Counsel of JTX seems to be jumping ship: Steven Barnett filed a Form 4 notice with the SEC indicating that he sold 9,803 shares of Jackson Hewitt last week. That (more…)

The IRS reports that over ninety percent of the returns filed through March 11th generated a refund.

Since the data only runs through the first week in March, it reflects a population bias (more…)