Affordable Care Act Befuddles Taxes: H & R Block CEO Explains

William Cobb, H & R Block Inc HRB CEO, was on CNBC to discuss the confusion caused by the Affordable Care Act among some taxpayers during the refund season.

What's Causing The Confusion?

“People are still confused, and they are confused because they either have to reconcile if they are in the exchanges against their actual income, or they have to pay a penalty,” Cobb said.

“So, the government now has made about 3 to 6 million people will pay [sic.] a tax penalty, and about 20 millions others or so are seeking an exemption, which is what we can help people find.”

Related Link: Obama Seeks Corporate Tax Restructuring

Without The Confusion, Would The Amount Of People Seeking Help Be As Large?

“It’s hard to estimate," Cobb said, "but now because of additional form[s] and this reconciliations to the actual, your actual income, it is a lot more."

"I mean, it is millions more, and we are seeing that in the amount of people coming into our offices now,” Cobb replied.

Can That Difference Be Quantified?

“We are still figuring it out,” Cobb said. “Because it's so early in this season and, I have said this all along, as in, we have to see how this plays out, because some people are coming in and we actually even had a day early in January [where] we just answered questions, where people are trying to figure out what to bring in and etcetera."

He continued, “And I have told the analysts and a lot of our investors, this is going to play out over a couple of years. So, we don’t have a good quantification yet because it is still early, I mean, the tax season is just kicking off.”