|
Learn More About Woodstock |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
Tax refund lenders bow to community pressure, stop offering pre-season tax refund loans |
|
|
|
Thousands of taxpayers loaded up on debt early this year
using a new variation of tax refund loan available in mid-November often called
a “holiday loan.” Based on a taxpayers projected tax and calculated using tax
information printed on their pay stub, these pre-filing season refund loans
cost low-income taxpayers millions and often lock them into additional tax
refund loans or other unnecessary and expensive tax preparation products. But there is good news––all three national
banks, which funded the loans offered by storefront tax preparers such as
H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, announced that they would not offer these
types of loans next tax season.
HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, and Santa Barbara Bank &
Trust, all of which offered variations of the pre-tax season refund loan,
announced last March that they would not longer offer these loans through their
tax preparation partners.
Woodstock Institute and other fair finance organizations
throughout the country have worked to protect the assets of lower-income people
during tax filing season as those filers are continually bombarded with new,
high cost consumer credit options. The
recent announcement marks a significant victory and is a step towards
substantive reform of an industry that continues to siphon millions of dollars
from lower-income taxpayers every year by making expensive and unnecessary
loans to low-income taxpayers.
|
|
|
View Articles by Month |
|
December, 2006
November, 2006
October, 2006
September, 2006
July, 2006
May, 2006
April, 2006
March, 2006
February, 2006
January, 2006
December, 2005
November, 2005
October, 2005
August, 2005
July, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 29 E. Madison, Suite 1710 | Chicago, Illinois 60602-4566 | (312) 368-0310 tel | (312)
368-0316 fax |
|
|
|
|