The Internal Revenue Service on August 5 said it would no longer provide the debt indictor, which signaled whether a taxpayer would have any portion of a refund offset for delinquent taxes or debts such as unpaid child support of delinquent student loans. Banks used the debt indicator to reduce risk in making loans. With the end of the indicator, Republic tightened is underwriting criteria and reduced the maximum amount of the loan to $1,500.

However, on February 10, Republic received a Notice of Charges about the soundness of loans from the FDIC. Republic said the notice did not address the refund transfer programs. It also said that the FDIC position is contrary to an evaluation by the  Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions.

Ironically, that notice came just as lenders loosened some restrictions on Jackson Hewitt's borrowing. The banks removed a requirement that cash on hand above a maximum balance would be applied to reducing loan amounts. Instead, the new agreement stipulates that Jackson Hewitt will deposit these funds in a cash collateral account. While the chain will maintain ownership of the cash, the account will be maintained by Wells Fargo, which is the adminstrative agent for all lenders. The banks also reduced the amount of cash that is likely to end up in that account by temporarily increasing the threshhold from $5 million to $12 millon on February 23. That cap will decrease in stages to $5 million on April 23.