I was ready to give H&R Block a big pat on the back for their promotional free refund anticipation check, but then I lost my enthusiasm after a little bit of calling around.

During Block’s March 7th investor call, Block’s CEO led off with his belief that offering free refund anticipation checks had been a boon for business.

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The Internal Revenue Service says that it will not allow consumers to direct any part of their tax refund to pay to settle their tax preparation fees.

The new split refund proposal would have cleared the way to solve a pending problem for consumers. With the likely elimination of refund anticipation loans, consumers will have fewer (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…)

An agreement reached between the Bureau of Prisons and the IRS will put an end to efforts by prisoners to operate fraudulent tax refund schemes. In the past few years, prisoners have successfully gamed the IRS for millions of dollars in refunds.

It appeared that some prisoners were filing multiple returns, aided by partners on the outside that used false social security numbers. More than half of the false returns came from prisoners at the London Correctional Institution in London, Ohio.

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Mark Ernst has taken a new position as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President at Fiserv. Ernst starts this week. Ernst has most recently served as Deputy Commissioner of the IRS. Prior to that, he was the CEO of H&R Block. Fiserv provides technology solutions in the financial space.

Looking Back

Ernst seems destined to be remembered as the person that ended the debt indicator. That decision, while (more…)