COVID Stimulus Payment:(Please allow people who used Turbocard to change our Payment method to avoid having our stimulus payments delayed by having to receive it by mailed check

[CaliGirlErin85]

I think it will be able to go on the Turbo Tax card. If you look at page 2 of form 1040, line 21, it shows our Turbo cards as a "Checking Account" with a routing number and account number, just like a normal bank would. I dont think the IRS will be able to differentiate this from an actual checking account. Lets hope so anyways!!

[Flamikep]

The only issue is your tax return don't go straight to your turbocard. When the irs sends the money your owed in your return it goes to the Santa Barbara bank to take out fees and then the Santa Barbara bank sends the money to your turbocard. So the irs does not have your direct deposit info. The IRS has the direct deposit info for Santa Barbara bank.

[Jadedcasey]

That's a good point. It would just be nice for customer service to at least acknowledge our questions. Very disappointment is them just ignoring us completely. Wont be using them next year and will definitely be telling my friends and family how they've just ignored us for days in a time like this

[Jadedcasey]

Oh man. What the hell. 

[He man]

If you go to irs website . 
it states in the next two weeks they will have an online system for you to give the irs bank routing info for your deposits .... just chill people .

[CassLO]

Please see the information from the IRS below, regarding the stimulus checks:

Economic impact payments: What you need to know

Check for updates here: Coronavirus Tax Relief

[kboyer06]

Me too but I still haven't even gotten my Federal refund. And it's been over three weeks! 

[CassLO]

@kboyer06 The IRS issues most refunds in about 21 days, although some returns take more time to review. The IRS is running on a limited staff right now also.

If your return shows processing on the Where's My Refund? site, during this time, the government reviews your refund. During the review process, they look for math errors on your return (extremely rare in TurboTax) and they also check if you owe back taxes, unpaid child support, or other debts. 

If they need to make any corrections, they may offset (reduce) your refund. In some cases, the correction might even increase your refund.

Once that part's done, the government approves your refund, which means it's ready to be deposited or sent.  At that point the IRS site will update with a direct deposit date. 

The general timeline of e-filed returns is: Transmission > Acceptance > Processing > Approval > Refund.

Continue to monitor your refund on the IRS Where’s My Federal Refund? site for updates. Updates are made daily, usually overnight. You may also download the IRS2Go app to check your Federal refund status.

Please see the links below for more information:

• Where's My Tax Refund? The IRS Refund Timetable Explained
• IRS Tax Season Refund Frequently Asked Questions
• What if my IRS refund is taking longer than 21 days? - TurboTax Support Video

[Flamikep]

What is the Santa Barbara Bank doing about getting our stimulus on the Turbocard ? Some actual answers would be nice. 

[CassLO]

@Flamikep 

We are still waiting for IRS guidance regarding the direct deposit information for the stimulus payments. We will have more information once the government finalizes the details.

In the meantime, please see the information from the IRS below, regarding the stimulus checks:

Economic impact payments: What you need to know

Note: If you go to IRS website, it states in the next two weeks, they will have an online system for you to give the irs bank routing info for your deposits. "He man"

Please check for updates here: Coronavirus Tax Relief

[Stinkerbellkity]

There was already an answer posted about this.  This bank, along with other major IRS depository banks, is in discussions with the IRS about how the IRS wants to handle stimulus checks when individual account information was not available on a tax return. The IRS web site indicates they may provide a special portal for people to enter bank information and I'm sure the banks are part of that development process.  More information will be provided on the IRS web site as soon as available.

[Flamikep]

That is just a deferment. I wasn't looking for a excuse. I was asking if there are any real answers. What does "the bank and the IRS are talking to each other" have to do with my question ? Direct deposit isn't a high tech action. It is a simple thing that happens thousands of times a day. The fact there the is no real answer is the issue. I'm looking for answers from the company I purchased a service from. They have no problem taking money out of my account every month so a question of direct deposit shouldn't be followed with a deferment to the IRS or an excuse involving something that might happen. I thought I was paying into a company that would have actual answers to questions, not excuses. 

[Opus 17]

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@Flamikep wrote:

I'm looking for answers from the company I purchased a service from. 

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You paid for tax preparation, you didn't pay for financial management services to cover emergency disaster stimulus payments. 

Look, let me get a bit legalistic, ok?  In order to receive your refund on a Turbo brand debit card, or pay your fees from your refund, or both, you must make a number of specific legal agreements (contracts) between yourself, the IRS, Turbotax and the processing company SBTPG.

• You give the IRS permission to deposit your refund into a bank account that is in your name, but not under your control (the temporary account opened for you by SBTPG).
• You give SBTPG permission to open a bank account in your name (which in some cases requires filing paperwork with the government under the Patriot Act).
• You give SBTPG permission to deduct any fees, and transfer your money to the Turbo card.
• Then you give SBTPG permission to close the temporary account  (which in some cases requires filing paperwork with the government under the Patriot Act).
• You give Intuit permission to forward certain personally identifying information (that is normally protected by taxpayer privacy laws) to SBTPG to make all this happen; such as your name, address, SSN, and amount of refund.

All of these permissions are applicable to the tax return you filed this year only.  They don't carry over to future tax years, and they certainly don't carry over to emergency government payments that were not even imagined when the contracts and permissions were asked for.

So the bottom line is that, while is would be technically easy to repeat the process for the stimulus payments, it may be illegal.  You never gave the IRS permission to send a stimulus payment to SBTPG in your name, and you never gave SBTPG permission to open a temporary account, receive the money, transfer it, and close the account.

Suppose the IRS decides to waive all the regulations and privacy laws and says "everyone gets their stimulus by the same method they got their refund."

• What if some taxpayers want a check and not a money card?  How do they opt out?
• What about people who have lost their money cards, or changed their address since getting their tax refunds?
• How does SBTPG get compensated for providing this service?  They have a contract with Intuit regarding refunds, but who will pay them over the stimulus?  Or should their employees work for free for the sake of the emergency?

Or suppose the IRS says, "if you want your stimulus on the same money card as your refund, go to this web site and click "I accept" to the new terms of service."  That web site could not possibly exist at this point since no one predicted it would be needed.

I'm not saying it can't or won't happen.  Maybe it will.  I'm saying that it may be unreasonable to expect these complicated issues to all be worked out less than 2 business days after the stimulus law was signed.  And if the IRS decides not to involve SBTPG and the tax preparers (perhaps due to the privacy laws I mentioned above) there is nothing Intuit can do about it.  

[Stinkerbellkity]

We have what information the IRS gives us, just like all tax software companies.  This bank is just one of many major banks approved by the IRS to receive federal tax refund deposits and they are all involved equally in helping the IRS figure this out.  There are federal laws involving the use of your banking information so technical abilities are only part of the equation.  Keeping your information secure is one aspect of the decisions. IRS and bank personnel availability is anther big issue.The IRS is also required to provide information equally to all software companies.  You will, therefore, receive only the information they choose to share with all of us. We have no "secret" access to what' going on, nor is there any reason for us to have "secret" information since no part of the conversation depends on or involves us or any other software company.  We will simply do anything the IRS requires us to do, should they decide they need us to do anything at all.

[Flamikep]

I'm glad through all the BS you decided to answer my question. If the account that the SBB opened to receive the funds from the IRS then take out the fees was closed after the process then the IRS will not be able to deposit it on turbocard. To remove all this confusion it would be much easier to tell your customers that have opted to use the turbocard for their refund that their stimulus will not be deposited on it for the above reason.