How the IRS Helps H&R Block Scam Taxpayers

Editor's Note: Liberty Tax Service, H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt are making out like bandits by charging effective interest rates of up to 500 percent on “Refund Anticipation Loans” to low-income Americans. Sign AlterNet’s petition demanding the executives of the three biggest tax preparation companies end their predatory tax refund scams.

You know tax season is around the corner when you see start seeing the guys in the cheap Statue of Liberty costumes. They begin popping up in mid-February, haunting subway exits and downtown intersections nationwide draped in garish aqua togas, faces lit up in sparkle paint, heads topped by radiant crowns of chipped Styrofoam. They are the hourly sandwich-board street barkers of Liberty Tax Service, carrying not tablets symbolic of ancient Roman wisdom, but paper fliers advertising modern-day tax services.
Echoing the original, these copycat Lady Liberties also beckon the poor. But instead of offering refuge, they offer scams.

Among the products and services provided by Liberty Tax Service are Refund Anticipation Loans (RAL). Together with fellow tax preparation giants H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, Liberty has become a leading purveyor of RALs: short-term, high-interest, fee-laden loans on imminent tax returns, the majority of which are taken out by the working poor. Over the last two decades, RALs have become a common and increasingly controversial part of the nation's tax season hustle. 
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New York State Tax Refunds Put On Hold

Gov. Paterson Freezes $500 Million, Says Financial Situation The Case, Won't Start Sending Again Until April 1

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