BIG reason to not file your taxes with H&R Block
March 1, 2008
I have just had the worst 4 hours of my life thanks to H&R Block.
BACKGROUND:
I am a W-2 employee and make some extra income on the side that I claim on a 1099.
My wife is a W-2 employee only ths year she switched jobs so she had two W-2 (one from each employer)
We go to the H&R Block at 254 S Federal Hwy Deerfield Beach, FL 33441 to get our taxes done.
There a rep name Pee Jay is assigned to do our taxes. We sit down and I begin to explain our income to him. He then asks to see our W-2 (we have 3 of them), my 1099, our mortgage statement, our HELCO statement and my deduction receipt for the 1099.
Now just to let you know, I have already made a $7,000.00 payment towards my 1099 taxes (I always send in 33% of what I make) .
Fast forward after he enters all the information in, he tells us we owe around $3,500.00. I’m shocked at this point, actually I’m about ready to punch the guy. He tells me that I never paid my self-employment tax for my 1099. I tell him that I’ve already made a $7,000.00 payment against my 1099 income and that he should check his work and to make sure that he entered the payment properly into the system.
Pee Jay looks me straight in the eye and tells me that I’m wrong, the system is correct and I owe the money. I tell him again to check his work because I know there’s an error. He then gets the office manager (the guy who’s suppose to know everything) and they both look over the numbers, look at me and tell me that I owe $3500.00.
At this point I know if stay in this office anymore I would get arrested since I’m ready to fly off the handle. There is no way I could report $22,000.00 in income on my 1099 and pay $11,0000.00 in taxes on it. With that, I stand up, tell them to hand me back my papers, pack up our stuff and walk out.
I then call up our old Rolist accountant and ask him to look over our taxes and to get a second opinion.
Long story short, I was right, they screwed up and didn’t take the $7,000.00 into account, hence now I’m getting a nice return.
Also, while I was at my accountant’s, H&R Block called my house and told my wife that in fact THEY DID make a mistake and that we would be getting a refund (which was along the amount that my account said I would get). I called H&R Block back, talked to Pee Jay and told him that I should
a) make him personally pay the bill for my accountant’s services.
b) call the corporate office and write a formal complaint about him and his manager.
Another thing. My wife went in there about a month ago and they did a prelim tax return for her and told her that if she filed separately she would owe $625.00. While at my accountant’s, he ran her taxes as if she filed separately and determined that she should have gotten $345.00 back . Again they were wrong!
Let this be a warning as tax season is upon us. You most likely know, from previous years filings, what you should get back or owe . If something doesn’t look right, don’t stand there and take in the ass like a bitch, go get a second opinion even if it means paying for it. Remember the IRS is not going to get your filing and tell you that you overpaid, that is your responsibility!
Can you image if I would have rolled over and paid the $3500.00? Do you actually think that H&R Block would have called me up a week later and told me that they were wrong??? NO! Of course not!!!
The thing that really pisses me off is when I think about how many people walked into their offices and were told that they owed money but didn’t . Now granted I can afford the $3500.00 but I know a lot of people that couldn’t. How would a grandmother who’s retired and living off a fixed income of social security and a petition be able to afford an extra $3500.00? That would probably bankrupt them and all because the person at H&R Block was too proud to re-check their work.
The government should quit wasting their time with baseball and start investigating H&R Block. How could they hire people that make mistakes like this? Maybe they just don’t give a shit. Half the staff in the place looked like they just walked off the street. None of them were dressed professionally at all and I even had to point out things to Pee Jay a couple of times during the consultation.
If you have had your taxes done by H&R Block in the past, I would encourage you to get them redone by a professional accountant. You could have paid when you should have gotten a return or paid more then you should have.
(Side note: I’m sending the link to this post to H&R Block to show them what happened.)
April 24, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I can top your H&R Block nightmare. My uncle started using the local H&R Block and met tax person Gayle about 12 +/- years ago. My uncle never married nor had any children. Knowing how much he was worth, which I’m sure was just a coincidence, last year Gayle became the power of attorney. At that same time she assisted him in writing a new will. Last week, she and her husband became over $1,000,000 richer when my uncle passed away. It will cost my family over $50,000 to fight this in court. The attorney isn’t sure how it will turn out. He said “Many things are unethical and immoral but still legal”
The money is really bad, however, my uncle died believing many of her lies (Don’t eat their meals, they may be trying to poison you for your money. They’ve always stolen your stuff. Don’t be alone with them, they might tear their shirt and say you tried to molest them. I’m the one who protected you from the IRS audit & jail, they don’t really care).
I don’t know exactly what to do. I’ve got another appointment with a probate attorney. I’m in the process of lodging a complaint with SC Licensing. I might consider a civil action against H&R Block in regards to their employees and an individual civil action against Mr & Mrs Gayle.
You got any suggestions?
September 18, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I recently discovered an egregious error made in my 2001 taxes!
At my work, one of my co-workers had adopted a “special needs” child from our state. Therefore, she had discovered that she was entitled to a special one-time tax credit of $10,000, to be listed on a special IRS form and included with her fax filings.
Since I also adopted “special needs” children in our state, I was shocked to learn this information because I knew that H&R Block had not give me such a tax credit.
I adopted 2 “special needs” children in the year 2001. In that year, the tax credit was only $6,000 per child. Therefore, I was entitled to $12,000 tax credit.
I reviewed my tax documents for 2001, and found that my tax preparer at H&R Block DID NOT TAKE THIS TAX CREDIT at all. She used the “special needs” adoption form — but she only deducted the attorneys’ fees we spent to adopt the children.
Therefore, we lost out on $12,000 !!
I immediately called the IRS and was informed that as the mistake was made in the year 2001, it was too far back to file an Amended Tax Return to get our credit. (The time limit to amend your return is 3 years).
I then wrote a letter to H&R Block, and attached the Tax Return they messed up, the IRS information supporting the tax credit I was entitled to during that year, and the updated research as well.
After a few follow-up phone calls, H&R Block offered to amend all of our taxes from 2001 to the present in order to fix this error. I allowed them to do this. They then instructed me to file each year with the IRS 4 weeks apart (”as the IRS will get confused”).
Well, I just received a REJECTION LETTER from the IRS, stating that they cannot honor our amended tax return because it is too far back (exceeds 3 years). “We can also appeal.”
H&R Block messed up our taxes and lost us $12,000 that we were entitled to … along with interest from the date we should have received the money.
They need to be the ones to pay me back, since it’s too late for the IRS do do so.
October 18, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Hi Rip,
I’ve been doing taxes for a number of years. While I do not know your adjusted gross income amount from 1040 line 7, it would stand to reason that you would definitely owe 13.9% in fica (medicare tax) which would come to $2780. From reading your post, it sounds like you are in the 33% tax bracket and therefore would be owning $7260, so I guess either you don’t fall in that high of a tax bracket because yes, you would owe $10400 less the $7000 paid which leaves $3400. I guess the total income did not exceed approx. $164,000.
October 19, 2008 at 8:28 pm
@Anne
apparently you didn’t read the whole post. I wasn’t pissed that i owed the money, i know i owed the money. i was pissed because H&R Block wouldn’t listen to me when i told them that i already made a payment towards the owed amount.
please read the whole post next time and not pick out what you want to comment on simply because you want to comment. it only makes you look like an idiot.
January 14, 2009 at 3:52 am
you do know hr block and jckson and hewitt, are goverment funded companies!!!
me and my wife use hr block for the last 3 yrs..
i havent had a problem yet.
but i will say i know the risks for a company that works for the goverment to screw u on your taxes!!
but like u said u MUST get SECOND OPINION…
it should be a requirement!!!
January 23, 2009 at 10:05 am
I agree with the op because I had the same experience with them in 07!
I did go with a different office this year and get better results though.
Some locations are better than others.
H&R block is not the best nor are they the worst. You gotta watch any individual/business when it comes to your finances!
Also, H&R block does not need to be defended. You have all right to post your experience with them online without being brutalized for it! People should pay attention to details before responding as if they have stock with the company!
January 29, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I could of told you that to begin with, not a smart choice to go to H&R Block could of saved you time and money…lol
January 29, 2009 at 2:22 pm
NOt a smart choice to begin with could of saved time and money
January 29, 2009 at 3:23 pm
This is a letter I am sending to HR Block
January 29, 2009
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing in regards to several problems we had while filing our 2008 tax return with the H&R Block located on Frank Street in Lufkin Texas.
First, I just want to say, every year I prepare our taxes through Turbo Tax. Every year I pay $80.00, and have them done within an hour or two, with no problems whatsoever. This year, a friend told me H&R Block had an Instant RAL return, where I could get our refund the same day, or next day at the latest. I kept seeing commercials about how wonderful and professional H&R Block was, and that you offer a satisfaction guarantee, so I thought I would give it a try.
The lady that prepared our return was so sweet, and I hate to complain because she was so nice….but the fact of the matter is that we ended up paying $600 for a service that we are unhappy with. Below is a list of everything that happened that we are completely unsatisfied with.
1. Our appointment was at 6:30pm, and I didn’t leave until after 10:00pm.
2. I had to tell the tax preparer what forms to use (schedule C), how to fill out self employed forms, how to do the 1099’s, what was deductible, etc. So I basically paid $600 for doing my taxes myself.
3. I was repeatedly told, by three different ladies in the office, that there was no First Time Homebuyers Credit. I had to tell them that it was a Form 5405, that it was new, and that they could find more info on the IRS website. After about 45 minutes, they figured it out. I wonder how many people missed out on this credit because the preparers had never heard of it.
4. I was repeatedly told that we did qualify for the Rapid Refund and that we would have our tax return within 1-2 days. I told them that this is the whole reason that I came to H&R Block, because I want to get our return back quicker every year…..AGAIN I was told that we were approved.
5. I was not happy with a $600 fee especially since I did most of the work myself, so I called and asked for a supervisor. I was given a number to Janet Lyndsey, who was at some sort of retreat in Beaumont, Texas. She told me that she was there with someone even higher up than her, and that she would call me back that day or the next morning. She told me to go ahead and file, and she would see how much money they could refund back to us from the $600 in fees. I have never heard back from her, although I have left messages for her.
6. I went back in H&R Block to sign all the papers and go ahead and file. The same lady that prepared our taxes was not in, and the girl that ended up printing out everything for us was extremely cocky and rude. She told me that if I wasn’t happy with their service, that I could go somewhere else. I told her that if I hadn’t already spent a total of 6 hours of my time in here, and since I had spoken to a supervisor, that I wanted to go ahead and file.
7. After everything had been signed and filed….this girl informed me that only $648 could be refunded by the RAL….and that we would have to wait 15 days for the rest of it. I told her that was the whole reason we even came here, and that we needed this money ASAP. But by then, she said there was nothing she could do.
Now we are not going to get our return until February 10th. If I would have gone ahead and filed with Turbo Tax, we would already have our money, or at the very latest would be getting it tomorrow (January 30th). We needed this money immediately. My husband’s work truck is broken down and this is affecting our business. I told the people at H&R Block this and everyone I spoke with said we qualified for the RAL.
I am extremely frustrated and upset with this entire situation, especially since no one has called me back and no one seems to care at all. We have owned a business for 5 years and I cannot imagine treating any of our clients this way.
I would like to be refunded the fees charged for filing and to find out if this is how all H&R Block offices operate, or did I just go to the wrong office. Your prompt response and attention to this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Codie Watson
February 6, 2009 at 10:05 am
sally i too have used hrblock for over 20 years ever since the ral came out i have recived one not this year not only did they charge me 450.oo but ifiled jan 16 2008 today feb 6 2008 i still have no accesses to my taxes they were desposited on the 30 of jan but on to a emerald card not a check that was where it was to be desposited but instead it was put on a emerald card i have been on the phone since last friday trying everything to get a cardsopposed to get the card today we will see i will never use hrblock again they did reverse 279.00 back what a suprise