Kim K
Lakeview,#2UPDATE Employee
Wed, June 18, 2008
As an employee of H & R Block, I find it hard to believe that for 10 years you were never told that there was a fee for withholding your fee from your refund. I tell each client that there is a "convenience fee" to withhold their fee. That the bank charges you to withhold from the refund. Hence, "convenience fee", to pay for the convenience. If you do not want to pay the fee use a check, credit card or cash. You can still have the refund deposited. I am still unclear as to why you did not receive your stimulus as a direct deposit, if you had your refund direct deposited. I would love to try to help you understand, and I do understand that some employees (not just with H & R Block) are not as informed as they should be. Please don't judge all offices as to your unfortunate choice of office.
Karen
Laurel,#3Consumer Comment
Thu, June 05, 2008
This is not just an H&R Block issue. This is not a scam either. I did my taxes through TaxSlayer and had the fees taken from my refund also. This resulted in no direct deposit of the Stimulus Check for me either. Apparently, when this mode of payment is selected, a temporary bank account is created for the tax preparer to receive the refund. After they take out their fees, they forward the money to you and then close the temporary account. Because of this, the IRS would not have been able to direct deposit the Stimulus because they would have the account number for the temporary account of the preparer and not your actual account number. All this information is posted on the IRS website. Unfortunately, no mention was made of it in the beginning until people started complaining about not receiving their checks direct deposit on the date they were supposed to. This really is not an H&R Block scam. They do not benefit from the Stimulus checks in any way, wether you get a paper check or a direct deposit.
Drivel92787
Hagerstown,#4Consumer Comment
Thu, June 05, 2008
My mother-in-law used H&R Block last year and stole 1/2 of her return. They informed her that the IRS took it due to back up taxes it was around 1,400.00. She called and asked the IRS and they said that they had disbursed the money to H&R Block. So, she called and spoke to the manager and they told her that there was nothing that they could do because the IRS took it. So, don't use them! I recommend using Turbo Tax on your computer! You can file your return right online and even use direct deposit option. The program for basic verison costs about $20 - $40, it costs around $7 to file online which is instant filing. I have used it for around four years! It is an excellent program! I recommend you try it!