CHERIE DIEZ | Times
By Waveney Ann Moore, Times Staff Writer Tuesday, January 11, 2011
For Octavia Teharte, a single mother of four, tax season meant a brief financial respite, accelerated by quick cash in the form of what in tax circles is called a refund anticipation loan.
“Like everybody else, bills were coming and coming fast and I needed money fast,” the St. Petersburg woman said.
Once, the fees handed over for the much-needed funds could have paid her electric bill.
Consumer advocates have long lobbied against the pricey, short-term loans that are based on a taxpayer’s anticipated refund and often targeted at low-income workers. Beginning this year, the Internal Revenue Service will no longer provide information about taxpayer government debt — unpaid child support and federally funded student loans, for example — used by tax preparers and financial institutions to determine the loans. That change will make it harder on those tax loan …
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