A Huge H&R Block Error Could Delay 600,000 Tax Refunds
In a mea culpa on its Facebook page Wednesday morning, the company said something went wrong with a specific tax form designated for students looking for tax credits.
"There was an issue with a limited number of software company products that affected some tax returns filed between Feb. 14 and 22, 2013," they wrote. "These affected returns included certain education tax credits claimed on Form 8863."
The IRS issued a statement a day earlier that said the error could effect 10 percent –– about 600,000 –– of those who filed the form.
Since the returns have been submitted to the IRS, the agency now has to work them through the process and identify those that were were affected before re-filing them. The process could take four to six weeks.
Needless to say, customers weren't thrilled.
"I called the IRS last week and the super nice lady looked into my account, I had filed on the 14th, and it was kicked out due to the missing information," Facebook user
Janelle Salisbury I wrote on H&R Block's page.
"She said they were able to fix it themselves and re-filed my return on the 21st so 4 weeks from then I should get my refund... which will make it the 22nd of March."
This could cause problems for students applying for federal student aid as well. They need tax return information for the FAFSA application. If that applies to you, here are the steps the Dept. of Education suggests taking to correct the issue:
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If your return has not yet been processed by the IRS, you can manually enter the tax return data on the application.
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Return to the online FAFSA to update the information when your return has been processed.
For now, concerned taxpayers can check the status of their refund on IRS.gov. The site is only updated once per day, so don't bother trying to check multiple times.
The number for H&R block is 800-HRBLOCK.