Wrongfully taken refunds

[Carla B]

I filed my taxes with H&R Block back in 2011 and found out that the preparer did them wrong, they admitted fault and paid a portion of what the irs said that I owed but the irs still took my refund and continued to take them each year even though I contacted them and explained what happened.  The person I spoke with would not give any info nor did she tell me what I needed to do to get my money back, then when I was finally able to file an amendment I was told that the records would be updated but because it was too much time gone by I would not get any of my money and then they continued to take my refunds and another rep told me that it is not the irs fault that I went to H&R Block to file my taxes.... last year they said that my refund was applied to my student loan but the Dept. of Ed said they only received a portion of it....where is the rest of my money??? now they took this refund for 2017 and again said that it was applied to my student loan, my thought is if they would have applied the money they already taken from me and put it on my loan it would be paid off and I would still have a refund coming back.  I have suffered serious financial hardship which I was already suffering from when they took the first refund, I lost my house, my car and my 2 kids and I have to live with my sister.  I think it is so messed up that the irs would issue thousands of dollars in refunds to people who are claiming people that are not even in this country but they would take my refunds totaling over $36,000 so far and I barely make $26,000 a year....Can anyone explain this to me???

[jklcpa]

Hi Carla, I'm sorry you are in this situation, but no one here will answer your questions.  This is a private forum for tax professionals that use mostly one brand of software.

That being said, we also can not provide you with anything more than what you have already found out, that too much time had elapsed and you were beyond the statute of limitations for filing the amended returns to correct mistakes made by HRB.  I am curious to find out though, if if this was truly caused by HRB's errors, why didn't HRB prepare amended returns for you to fix their mistakes?

As far as where the rest of your money is, like any creditor, the IRS does charge interest and penalties, so it is entirely possible that some of your refund was applied to those charges before any remaining amount of the refund was used to offset the student loan.

I'd suggest that you talk with a local tax professional to see if someone can help you straighten some of this out for you, possibly work out a reduced settlement, or at least give you a better understanding of what is happening.