150 Types of Unusual Investments – The List

134. Tax Refund Loans – the big tax preparation firms like H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt and a few banks used to offer tax refund loans, but they were largely legislated out of existence.

Instead, they offer advances on tax refunds to customers at zero interest, but with the caveat that you pay them for tax preparation services.

An individual investor could use the same arrangement combined with low cost or free tax prep software to offer a “zero interest” advance bundled with paid tax preparation, thus earning a return on the money being advanced.