H&R Block, Wal-Mart working on partnership

H&R Block Inc. is close to signing an agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to provide tax services to the retailer’s customers in as many as 850 Wal-Mart stores for the upcoming tax season, an H&R Block spokesman said.

H&R Block Chairman and Chief Executive Mark A. Ernst made the announcement Wednesday at the company’s annual meeting, spokesman Bob Schneider said.

If signed, Kansas City Mo.-based H&R Block would have modular-type office units in Wal-Mart stores, including the retailer’s superstores but not its Sam’s Club stores, Schneider said. As many as three employees can work in the units at one time, he said.

Schneider said he wasn’t sure if the pending agreement would lead to an incremental increase in the number of tax professionals that H&R Block hires for the upcoming tax season.

International

Thousands of farmers protest at WTO meeting

Negotiators from 146 countries sat down to thorny trade negotiations Wednesday, with rich and poor nations pushing conflicting agendas on agricultural reform and leaders cautioning that their decisions could mean life or death for billions of people.

Thousands of poor farmers, worried that more trade will drive them out of business, clashed with riot police as they tried to storm past barricades blocking the site of the World Trade Organization meeting. Hours later they dispersed, vowing to try again.

Leaders at the opening WTO session made clear they would try to level the playing field on farm trade by persuading rich nations to make deep cuts in the nearly $1 billion a day they pay their farmers.

Real Estate

Homeowners struggling to make payments

More homeowners were behind on their mortgage payments in the last quarter as job losses put a strain on some households’ budgets.

The seasonally adjusted percentage of mortgage payments 30 or more days past due for all home loans rose to 4.62 percent in the April to June quarter, up sharply from 4.52 percent in the first three months of this year, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America reported Wednesday in its quarterly survey. The survey covered roughly 34 million mortgage loans.

The second-quarter’s delinquency rate was the highest since the third quarter of 2002 when the delinquency rate was 4.66 percent.

Atchison

Firm seeks protection of British operations

Atchison Casting Corp.’s subsidiaries in the United Kingdom have asked an administrator to continue operating its businesses while trying to sell them in an orderly manner. The filing is Britain’s equivalent of filing for bankruptcy protection.

The Atchison-based firm, which manufactures steel castings, has battled a manufacturing recession and intense foreign competition.

The company’s U.S. operations filed for bankruptcy protection Aug. 4 in St. Joseph, Mo., after it was unable to persuade its lenders to extend a credit agreement to September 2004.