I will never use your service again. This laundering of tax payer's refunds through Santa Barbara Tax Group is incomprehensible. I will be looking at options of filing a class action lawsuit against both you and Santa Barbara Tax group for withholding my tax refund. If your website would have simply stated prior to filing that, if you choose to have your fees deducted out of your refund, you may be subject to additional delays to receiving your refund I would not have a problem with your service. I would have like to have known that I would have been better off paying for my fees through a credit card and have the IRS deposit my refund directly into my account. Instead, i chose (unknowingly) that my refund would be re-routed to the Santa Barbara Tax Group to be withheld because they will release my refund as they see fit. In fact, they told me my refund is being withheld because 'further investigation was necessary'. If this was the case Tax Products Group or Santa Barbara Tax Group why wasn't I notified? Why did I have to track down this group and dial 4 different 800 numbers to get somebody on the phone. And why, most importantly, have you not given me a specific reason on why your still withholding my refund that the IRS has already approved and sent? This practice is unacceptable, and as a banker, I have to assume this group is pooling millions of refunds of taxpayers' money and earning profits while they hold on to these refunds longer than necessary. Unacceptable Turbo Tax. The disclosures on deducting fees are misleading and not clear which is not an acceptable practice. I have notified the CFPB and will look at other actions necessary to ensure that this practice stops and that you are clearer with the option of simply 'having fees deducted' from your refund.
I am having the same problem. This has got to be illegal!!! There are hundreds upon hundreds of similar complaints and I am seriously considering legal action against this. They have been eating up my refund with fees and other stuff. Please let me know if you ever receive your money!!!!
Please advise if you do. I have over $30,000 tied up with them. No answer on the phone (I was on hold for 3 hours yesterday before they dropped the call).
I'm having the same problem ... only I'm about to lose everything I have as I have been laid off for a month now. I would be interested in a lawsuit as well. (PII removed) Thanks
And I'm not talking about suing for peanuts ... If I lose my house - $145,000, car - $57,000, other - 40,000 plus pain and suffering and this is just the start.
My question and complaint with the TurboTax or the SBTG is this: Why were my funds deposited into my account last year without trouble but this year suddenly my account number is missing a number? That isn't my fault that's theirs. This is a complete injustice and I call foul play.
I ended up getting my money, but it was about 15 days longer than it should be. My biggest issue was not being told anything. I had to enquire about it through TT first and then eventually SBTG. There was no mechanism to call me, email me or mail me to let me know they were holding my funds because of suspicious activity.... and again I have no idea what is suspicious about receiving funds from IRS and then sending it onto a US account in the same name as the tax refund. I call foul play also, it is pretty clear they are holding up funds as long as possible for whatever reason they can.... this could literally be millions of dollars, even at a very low interest rate this could be $10,000's of dollars profit a month.
Also I reported them to the State of California Department of Justice - Attorney General consumer complaints department. I don't expect them to do anything, but the fact it is lodged if they had many many complaints then it going to make waves.
I'm freaking out and livid about this exact issue. I don't know when I will get my refund, it took forever to even FIND it. I too am looking for legal recourse.
who has made complaints where? I'm posting on TurboTax fb page, but I will be happy to spend some $ for legal advice on this.
I keep getting hung up on when trying to reach Santa Barbara Tax Processing Group <--spelling out for future google searches
A lot of people are saying this is only large or international based accounts which is quite misleading. I have a refund under ~4,000 and it has been wrapped up since the 10th. If you read your direct deposit agreement in the tax refund form it does say where it's going. What they are actually doing with the money is another question. I changed my email address and bank account last year so maybe that is the reason for a red flag and the security hold? I'm not sure but it doesn't seem right having to track down unknown entities and send them a copy of my driver's license to access what is rightfully mine. Green Dot and MoneyPak are often known for malicious activity so I'm not sure why TurboTax would think this would be a good partner. Knowing their history the Santa Barbara Group probably assumes if no one can find or claim their money they will acquire all proceeds. We will see what happens though since I talked to a representative and you can expect updates on this thread. For anyone needing further information, you can find contact numbers on their website.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://support.sbtpg.com/hc/en-us/articles/xxxxxxxxx-Contact-Information">http://support.sbtpg.com/hc/en-us/articles/xxxxxxxxx-Contact-Information</a>
I am having the same problems with the Santa Barbara Tax Group.They are holding up my tax refund for no good reason. It is almost impossible to make contact with them. If you Google them and their relationship to TurboTax there are hundreds of complaints regarding their holding on to tax payers refunds for nebulous and nefarious reasons. This is terrible PR for TurboTax and and puts their customers under a great deal of stress. Many, many of the respondents on the internet think this is a major SCAM!! It needs to stop and be rectified by TurboTax. I could not recommend utilizing TurboTax in the future to anyone just for this reason.
Yes same here. they are the most fly by night boiler room type operation. The Lady I spoke with got irritated with me and hung up on me when I asked for supervisor. Now they are making me file indemnity bond. So where did my check go??? My neighborhood isn't the mail stealing type. They are telling me it got sent but it never came now in in limbo waiting. Hope to God I get it it 900!! That's a lot of money to me. I actually got turbo tax to refund refund my fees by going to twitter and asking them about it there. But that still leaves the rest of my federal refund 900! In SPTPG dirty hands. So angry ... Nothing else I can do this place needs to be shut down!
Please count me in! I'm going thru it w them right now & its frustrating & ridiculous.
Count me in, I've been with Turbo Tax for 15 years, and have never had an issue. It's making me rethink TurboTax, Quickbooks, etc.
People if you want something done start leaving ways to contact each other if this is gonna fix anything people have to band together a protest social media is the new wave not reporting to a million different agencies that won't help one person ... contact <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:xxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com">xxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com</a> leave info about it and we get a class action lawsuit.
I am having the same issue. I am reporting them to my State's Attorney General (Oregon). Along with Intuit. Look for #SBTGFRAUD on facebook and join the group if you have had a similar problem. This site will not show any personal contact information, so we have to find a different way to get in touch
Food for thought. ..II got calls from both Turboax and SBTPG the day after mentioning a lawyer. .? And my refund was returned to the IRS. Still intend to file a an lawsuit for interesr!
Anyone interested in a class action lawsuit against these crooks pleas e mail me at [Removed] thanks
As I am not a US citizen I do not know the recourse here, I am losing approx $19 per day the refund is not issued in interest alone, currently 10 days overdue. I am unable to contact anyone via phone at SBTPG and their website simply says "We have identified unusual account activity and for your security, your account has been placed on hold. ". Which is bizarre because I have never done anything with this account before (I only heard about it from TT when I called to find out where my refund was).
That's an extremely large refund...the amount alone may have triggered a fraud possibility.
I think that is an issue for the IRS not the receiving bank.
@jansett You are asking for a $30,000 deposit to be sent overseas on the basis of your tax return? No wonder it is being held up. If you had filed with the IRS and used direct deposit from the IRS into a US based bank account, it would have been a lot faster. If you filed with the IRS and requested a paper check to be mailed overseas, I'm sure they would have held it for verification.
When you use refund transfer, the IRS doesn't know where the money is ultimately going, only that it's first stop is SBTPG in California. It's a good thing that SBTPG is investigating refunds like yours, either on their own or in cooperation with the IRS. (It might even be a new condition of their being allowed to continue to receive refunds. If the IRS saw a lot of fraud going through SBTPG, they could blacklist them.)
You asked for a huge untraceable overseas refund, which raises every red flag there is and looks exactly like refund fraud or money laundering. Even if you are a legitimate taxpayer, you bear some responsibility for that. Next time, open a US bank account to receive your refund and then do a traceable, legal reportable wire transfer into your overseas account.