Her refund will be reduced $327.95 (after a $25 coupon) for the cost of getting her taxes done at an H&R Block office near her home in Timberville, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley.
“I knew my credit score wasn’t going to be high enough for a standard loan,” Vernier said.īut she said she was told by the tax preparers that she likely would qualify, given that she was expected to receive more than $7,800 in federal and state tax refunds with the earned income credit and the child credit. The amount of the advance depends, in part, on the expected amount of your refund.įor many, some advance money becomes available the same day you file your taxes, even though the IRS won’t being accepting returns until Jan. She thought she’d be able to receive some type of refund advance. Vernier, a freelancer who specializes in technical writing and drafting proposals, reported nearly $27,000 in income on her 2018 tax return. It’s just been me with the equivalent of making $12 an hour.” We’re struggling right now, as I’m sure a lot of people are. “My partner is out of work,” Vernier said, noting that he has had health issues. She wanted some quick relief to catch up with car payments and other bills. 16 in the hopes of qualifying for one of the heavily advertised tax refund advances. Vernier, a mother of two children under 4, had her taxes done on Jan. About 1.7 million refund anticipation loans were made in the industry in 2017, according to a report issued in March 2018 by the National Consumer Law Center. 27 to get their refund from the IRS, according to H&R Block. Last year, roughly 15 million taxpayers claiming those two credits had to wait until the week of Feb.
Thanks to the Earned Income Tax Credit, their tax refund is the single largest lump sum payment they get in a year. But waiting the extra weeks can be a hardship for many cash-strapped, working families. The delay was designed to combat tax refund fraud. The popularity of refund advance products has grown in recent years, in part, because the Internal Revenue Service is now required under law to delay the entire refund of early tax filers who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Additional Child Tax Credit until at least mid-February. Only 40 percent of Americans, for example, would be able to pay an unexpected $1,000 expense from their savings, according to a survey by. Many families feel the pressure of too many bills smacking up against too little cash. Her story is worth telling because it’s easy to gloss over the details in a rush for cash. Vernier found out too late that she couldn’t qualify for a tax refund advance, either. “A lot of people are going for this refund advance because you can’t get a standard loan,” said Vernier, 38, who admits her credit score of around 530 needs work. And while tax refund advance loans may be popular and work OK for some people, they’re not always a fast-cash guarantee - especially if you have a bad credit score. Isn’t this tax advance just a way to get some of your own refund money a few weeks early? Not exactly.
H r block refund advance tv#
We’re bombarded with TV ads, window signs and other pitches for a loan product that some consumers might not even consider a real loan. Plenty of people would jump at the chance to speed up getting some of their tax refund cash, especially in light of the government shutdown, job cuts and other financial headaches.īut Tiffany Vernier’s story should make some who are desperate to pay their bills think twice about handing over a few hundred dollars to get their taxes done in the hopes of snagging a tax refund advance of up to $3,000.
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