From the TMI message board

[GeorgeM]

From Bloomberg News, but not on IRS site. "Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Internal Revenue Service said it may try to prevent tax preparers such as Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. and H&R Block Inc. from offering customers refund loans and audit insurance because they can encourage fraud.

The plan, if adopted by the IRS, would restrict tax preparers from passing along tax return information to lenders who provide instant refunds and then charge customers predatory interest to repay the loans. Consumer groups and taxpayer advocates have urged the government to crack down on such practices. "

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jReply to above

for many years. Not likely to happen, too much money in campaign coffers of Congress from financial institutions to expect such a ban on loans. And, it is an incentive for many low income people to actually file a return, which they would avoid if they weren't getting a bunch of money back in time to pay Feb. rent.

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"H&R Block Comment On Proposed RAL Restrictions

Thursday January 3, 4:33 pm ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--We look forward to working with the IRS on continuing to develop best practices for refund anticipation loans, just as we did over the past two years on the privacy rules announced today, which reflect many of H&R Block’s existing guidelines. H&R Block’s tax professionals are not compensated on the sale of ancillary products, so there is no incentive for them other than serving taxpayers’ best interests. In addition, RALs are currently regulated by 10 federal laws and IRS rules. The typical RAL at H&R Block costs about 2 percent of the principal, or less than the cost of a credit card advance, bank overdraft, or in many cases, using an ATM."

[xatxtech]

From Bloomberg News, but not on IRS site. "Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Internal Revenue Service said it may try to prevent tax preparers such as Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. and H&R Block Inc. from offering customers refund loans and audit insurance because they can encourage fraud.

The plan, if adopted by the IRS, would restrict tax preparers from passing along tax return information to lenders who provide instant refunds and then charge customers predatory interest to repay the loans. Consumer groups and taxpayer advocates have urged the government to crack down on such practices. "

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jReply to above

for many years. Not likely to happen, too much money in campaign coffers of Congress from financial institutions to expect such a ban on loans. And, it is an incentive for many low income people to actually file a return, which they would avoid if they weren't getting a bunch of money back in time to pay Feb. rent.

Reply With Quote

"H&R Block Comment On Proposed RAL Restrictions

Thursday January 3, 4:33 pm ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--We look forward to working with the IRS on continuing to develop best practices for refund anticipation loans, just as we did over the past two years on the privacy rules announced today, which reflect many of H&R Block’s existing guidelines. H&R Block’s tax professionals are not compensated on the sale of ancillary products, so there is no incentive for them other than serving taxpayers’ best interests. In addition, RALs are currently regulated by 10 federal laws and IRS rules. The typical RAL at H&R Block costs about 2 percent of the principal, or less than the cost of a credit card advance, bank overdraft, or in many cases, using an ATM."

I read the Proposed Marketing Restriction on the IRS website.

Following is one of the new rules, will be effective Jan 1 2009, (not sure if it is enacted or only proposed):

"Among the new rules:

Generally, preparers must obtain taxpayer consent, either by paper or electronically depending on how the return is being filed, before tax return information can be disclosed to any third party or used for any purpose other than filing the return.

If the taxpayer consents to the disclosure and use of his information, the consent must identify the intended purpose of the disclosure, identify the recipients and describe the particular authorized disclosure or use of the information."

If this does / is in effect you may want to check if the consent will be required for any taxpayer you are efiling with ATX or Taxwise in 2009, since starting this year, the company will retain all of the client's information that is being efiled and it will be accessible by anybody working in the Georgia customer service/tech support division. In prior years ATX was always very careful about protecting clients information and all senisitive information i.e. SSN, account numbers etc... were data stripped and not accessible by customer service/ tech support. All information efiled starting Jan. 11 will be viewable by any of their customer service staff.

[joanmcq]

"If this does / is in effect you may want to check if the consent will be required for any taxpayer you are efiling with ATX or Taxwise in 2009, since starting this year, the company will retain all of the client's information that is being efiled and it will be accessible by anybody working in the Georgia customer service/tech support division. In prior years ATX was always very careful about protecting clients information and all senisitive information i.e. SSN, account numbers etc... were data stripped and not accessible by customer service/ tech support. All information efiled starting Jan. 11 will be viewable by any of their customer service staff."

This is not good news. What purpose does this serve? Why should customer service/tech support have access to any of my client's info, especially if I am not, for example, sending a problem return to tech support?