Tax glitch delays refunds, angers Block customers [KCS]
From Feb. 14 to 22, the Kansas City-based firm made errors in possibly hundreds of thousands of federal tax returns by not properly following a change made this year in how to fill out Form 8863. That form is used to reduce taxes by giving taxpayers a credit for certain educational costs. Now H&R Block customers throughout the country whose returns included that mistake are hearing that their refunds will be delayed by several weeks. Many of those affected are students or parents who need the money for books or their tax receipt to apply for financial aid. Compounding the problem and angering many Block clients, many received the bad news from the Internal Revenue Service, which sent out letters telling them their returns needed to be corrected. The mistake is affecting about 10 percent of the 6.6 million tax returns containing Form 8863, IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said Tuesday. She didn’t estimate how many of the misfiled returns came from Block, but the company was bearing the brunt of complaints.
Intuit Says Court Denies H&R Block's Second Attempt To Pull TurboTax Ads [RTT]
Tax preparation software maker Intuit Inc. ( INTU ) said Monday that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri has denied, for the second time, tax preparer H&R Block, Inc.'s ( HRB ) attempt to stop Intuit from continuing to air two television advertisements for TurboTax. In denying H&R Block's motion for a preliminary injunction, the court noted that although H&R Block makes "much of their training programs for tax preparers in their first year and beyond, training is not the same thing as experience." The judge further stated that "it is not false or misleading…to draw consumers' attention to the true statement that certain consumers who go to major tax stores could have their taxes prepared by someone who has no prior work experience preparing taxes."
U.S. Tax Cheats Picked Off After Adviser Mails It In [Bloomberg]
Everybody knows the danger of sending things inadvertently in an e-mail. Beda Singenberger’s case shows you also have to be pretty careful when you mail things the old-fashioned way. Over an 11-year period, federal prosecutors charge, Swiss financial adviser Singenberger helped 60 people in the U.S. hide $184 million in secret offshore accounts bearing colorful names like Real Cool Investments Ltd. and Wanderlust Foundation. Then, according to a prosecutor, Singenberger inadvertently mailed a list of his U.S. clients, including their names and incriminating details, which somehow wound up in the hands of federal authorities.
That could be helpful. You know, with the anthrax scares and planes being flown into buildings and all.
For much of the past year, analysts have claimed that a host of political factors are inhibiting hiring—regulation, the fiscal cliff, the sequester, the debt ceiling, the reelection of a socialist. […] But there’s another force at work—more powerful, more ubiquitous, and arguably more delicious: Doritos Locos Tacos. The neon-orange, meat-filled miracle taco, wrapped in a Nacho Cheese Dorito shell, was Taco Bell’s biggest hit of 2012, with 375 million sold, or roughly one million a day. It was largely responsible for the chain’s incredible growth, outpacing not just KFC and Pizza Hut, but even McDonald’s. “It has been the biggest launch in Taco Bell history,” said Greg Creed, chief executive officer of Taco Bell, which saw same-store sales rise 8 percent in 2012. “Last year, we added 15,000 people to handle the growth.”