H&R Block Gives $25 to Customers Affected by SOME Tax Filing Delays

[kcjenkins]

This past tax season, hundreds of thousands of Block customers found their tax returns delayed, thanks to changes in Form 8863, “Education Tax Credits,” by the Internal Revenue Service, which added extra questions to the form and required tax software to answer them with N for No and Y for Yes

A large proportion of the delayed tax returns were filed by H&R Block, and Block president and CEO Bill Cobb apologized for the problems last month. A number of lawsuits were filed by Block customers, who also posted angry messages on Block’s Facebook page. The IRS had initially estimated that it would take six weeks for the affected taxpayers to receive their refunds, but it later shortened the estimate to two to four weeks.

However, the delays affected Block’s business this past tax season, and the company’s stock plunged approximately 11 percent Thursday after Cobb admitted that the Kansas City-based tax prep giant processed fewer returns this year than last year. The company serviced 22 million tax prep clients in the U.S. through April 18, which was 190,000 fewer than last year, representing a 0.9 percent decline from the previous tax season.

In a concession to customers affected by this past tax season’s delays, Block offered to provide them with a $25 Emerald Card gift card. The Emerald Card is Block’s own prepaid debit card brand that it offers in partnership with MasterCard.

[Guest Taxed]

$25 to the taxpayer and x1000 or more to the class action attorney! That is how our legal system works!

[joanmcq]

$25 is probably more than the consumer would get in a class action suit. More like a coupon for $10 off next years return. Or $4.82. I had a few clients with w-2 s from employee class action suits. All had less than $10 of wages. They appeared to be overtime suits.

[Guest Taxed]

Yup! The only people making money from this unfortunate situation are the class action lawyers! I wonder if HRB can get the class action suits thrown out now that they have admitted responsibility and willing to give compensation?