(Side note: wrong. Very wrong. If your pell grant comes to more than your qualified education expenses you keep every penny of it you got. You do, however, pay taxes on the portion above and beyond the qualified education expenses.)
She kept pointing her finger at me saying that YOU can pay taxes on that money and YOU can try for that credit and not get it.
What followed was the most groundbreaking customer service experience I have ever witnessed. Upon hearing my question her body language and vocal tone changed. It was clear (me being 21) I was some dumb kid with the internet who just must know everything. She told me she's NEVER known anyone STUPID enough to pay taxes on Pell grant money. IT IS TAX FREE, you do not pay taxes on it.
Stopped by with a tax question prior to actually getting my taxes done. Called at 4pm and asked if Mary (whom I'm told is the owner) would be willing to entertain a tax question from me as our taxes are getting more complex as the years go by and this year we decided not to use TurboTax again. She was okay with that, she just had a 5pm tax appt. Showed up at 4:15pm. She met me in the lobby, not her office (I assume because we weren't paying for her services yet) which was fine with me. I brought my wife's mother with because she was one of 2 personal references who have been going to her for over 10 years.
Skip ahead to shortly before I left. (and this is where it gets good.) She takes her tirade to a whole new level. This whole experience happened in front of 5-6 people sitting in the waiting area, the receptionist, and my wife's mother. Her last educated comment on paying taxes on a Pell grant went something like this, "The only way I could see her (referring to my wife) wanting to pay taxes on her pell grant is if she's taking that Pell grant and using it to buy DRUGS because she needs DRUGS to function in society."
I left there and made a few calls. Turns out you pay taxes on extra Pell grant money, you can pay taxes on more of your Pell grant to get the education credit (although in some cases it can lead to a higher tax bill than not), then I called H&R Block to file 2 complaints. One for my personal experience that day and one because she told me that as long as she's been doing taxes noone has ever paid taxes on Pell grant money. That can go back 10 years in terms of the IRS finding those mistakes and expecting payment.
[The question came down to this: my wife is in college, her Pell grant came to more than her qualified education expenses, according to publication 970, IRS, we can elect to pay taxes on a larger portion of her pell grant in order to qualify for and get a larger Federal Student Education Opportunity Credit. I just simply wanted to know if we were understanding that correctly and if not then why not.]
H R Block is a US Accounting firm based in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. H R Block is located at 902 Broadway, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965, USA.
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