H&R Block Mistake Delays 600,000 Tax Refunds

An H&R Block mistake causes delays for 600,000 tax refunds. So if you filed your taxes through the company between February 14th and 22nd, and you claim educational credits, you could be waiting six more weeks to see you money.

The error H&R Block made on form 8863, used to claim educational credits, is a mistake taxpayers make all the time. It didn’t check all of the necessary boxes on the form.

Form 8863 is one of many forms this year that’s beenchanged. In years past. if some of the boxes on the form were left empty the IRS took that as a “No” answer. That’s not the case this year. If any boxes were left empty, the return is kicked out and sent for further review.

The IRS has posted a statement on its website saying it may be four to six more weeks for those affected to see their refunds. The glitch affects about 10% of the people claiming education credits who filed using H&R block between February 14th and 22nd.

The problem isn’t just causing people to wait longer for their money. It’s also causing students problems when they apply for federal student aid. Students need a filed tax return to apply for FAFSA. The Department of Education says there is away around the problem. Students will be able to manually enter their tax return data on their FAFSA application. Once their taxes are processed, the information can be updated on the FAFSA website.

For more information on the FAFSA guidelines, go online to www.fafsa.ed.gov.

If you want to know the status of your refund you can go to www.irs.gov and click on “Where’s my refund”