less attractive to some. History Refund advance loans began in 1985 when Ronald Smith, an accountant in Virginia Beach, VA started the practice of at his accounting firm, Action Accounting & Taxes. This service of loans-on-tax-refunds was advertised in the local area between 1985 and 1987. The refund advance loans became a success from the start and a sensation in the area in 1986 and 1987 and was the first and only firm in the United States that was offering that service according to the IRS. In 1986 a salesman from Charlie Falk's Auto asked if they could make an arrangement where Action Accounting & Taxes could prepare taxes for customers seeking to purchase cars in order to supplement their down payments on used or new car purchases. The practice of tax refunds being used in conjunction with car financing quickly spread throughout the area and then throughout the entire United States. John Hewitt purchased Mel Jackson's Tax Service and began to offer refund anticipation loans in 1988, building a national franchise out of the idea: Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. In 1989 H & R Block joined in, coopting into thousands of accounting firms and tax practices across the United States and becoming a billion-dollar industry. It was reported in 1989 that H & R Block had doubled its business at over 4,000 locations due to the introduction of this new refund loan service. Refund advance loans spread to Canada through Liberty Tax Service and in time this company also moved into the United States market offering the same service. The proliferation of this tax loan practice coincided with the introduction of electronic filing by the IRS. Previous to this time refunds would take on average two to three months to come back from the IRS which is why loans on tax refund are also known as refund anticipations loans. In 1988, Ronald Smith as well as Mr. Coplon were jointly sued by the Attorney General of Virginia in a Richmond state court for charging usurious interest. Ronald Smith was eventually dismissed from the case and it was reported by the State's Attorney at the time that the reason for his dismissal from the case was that Mr. Smith was "not culpable". A tax preparer would, within 24 hours of submission, receive from the IRS confirmation that the submission was free of mathematical errors, and that the filer had no