Intuit also gets high marks from Vickrey for exiting the business of making high-interest refund anticipation loans to taxpayers.
The heirs received the $10 million, which included the money in the accounts plus interest and refunds of bank fees.
Many states have a powerful incentive not to keep the checks out of the mail for too long: laws requiring them to pay interest on refunds delayed beyond 60, 90 or 120 days.
It will eliminate the fat, interest-free refund in the spring, reducing what the shrinks might call "mailbox anxiety" as you paw through the junk mail in search of your refund check.
For example, the FHA (and others) may choose to define it to incorporate wages, salaries and tips -- for your full and part-time jobs -- as well as taxable interest, dividends, refunds (such as from your state income tax), capital gains and other taxable income.
In some cases, interests are refunded as cashback.
One small consolation for homeowners who got the credit in 2008 and are now awaiting refunds, Mr. King noted in an e-mail: The I.R.S. must pay interest on the refund it owes you if the agency doesn't pay it within 45 days after the due date of the return (April 18 for this year), or the filing date for those filing after April 18, whichever is later.
In addition, the firm has agreed to write off all outstanding balances on accounts affected by this practice; and write off or refund interest and fees added to customers' accounts after the point at which the firm should have provided customers with an annual statement.
Those wrongly foreclosed will be compensated equal to a minimum of lost equity, plus interest and a refund for money lost because they were wrongly denied the opportunity to reduce their mortgage payments, the White House said.
H & R Block's proposed settlement of lawsuits by Texas customers who say they were charged excessive interest on tax-refund loans is not in the public interest and should be rejected, the Federal Trade Commission said yesterday in court papers.
