Jackson Hewitt was left scrambling late in 2009 when regulators forced Santa Barbara Bank and Trust from the RAL business. Republic, which originally agreed to fund 25 percent of the refund loans, increased its share to half. But the tax firm wasn't able to find another backer and it lost a significant amount of business at locations that could not offer RALs. Under its lending agreement, Jackson Hewitt must have comittments for the entire loan program by November 19.

One of the most likely candidtes for funds is the Santa Barbara Tax Products Group, which took over the Santa Barbara bank's tax business. However, it only got funds for assisted refunds last year from Meta Bank.

While SBTPG has not announced a RAL program officially and not responded to press inquiries, it has had enrollment for a loan program open on its website for several weeks. The webste lists several companies as software developers, but does not say which is participating in a particular program. The vendors are ATX, CrossLink, Drake, Intuit, OLT Online Taxes, TaxSlayer, TaxWorks and TaxWise. Besides listing Jackson Hewitt under franchise opporunities, SBTPG lists Liberty Tax Service.

The site says those who have not previously been electronic return originators will be eligble to offer only assisted refunds. Experienced EROs can apply for the RAL program until December 19. Those applying on December 20 and after will only be considered for assisted refunds.