For the first time in over 10 years of using TurboTax (TT) I have received my refund direct deposited into my bank account from TPG LLC rather than directly from IRS. For those who are not aware, TPG is a banking service that TT uses when customers choose to have TT software or other service fees taken from their refund. TPG usually takes in addition to the TT fee, another fee for their brokerage services. In my case, my refund was reduced by $85--I confirmed this by going to IRS Where's My Refund and confirming that I was refunded my full expected amount by the IRS. I then went to the TPG website (webtaxpayer (sbtpg.com) where one can see details on the fees taken from your refund. In my case it was a $45 'TurboTax Product Fee' plus another $40 'Bank fee' for 'Option to pay with your refund'. However, I know this fee was not for the software as I had already purchased it (TT Deluxe installed on my hard drive). Instead, as near as I can tell, the 'TT Product Fee' was for 'Audit Defense' that I have never purchased previously. This year the software makes it difficult if not impossible to avoid purchasing it as screen shots (cropped for privacy) follow in sequence by clicking 'continue' in each instance. As can be seen, the software moves from 'Analysis' to 'Audit Protection' and then automatically (by clicking continue) selects 'Audit Defense'. What is even more surprising is that Audit Defense is then not even listed at the bottom of the 'Summary' page (likely glitch). Thinking that one is then only using filing a federal return for free, no credit card advance payment is made for the Audit Defense (I did make credit card advance payment as I always do for my state filing). I suspect that TT is going to make a windfall from Audit Defense this year...but lose some of its most loyal customers...this bad timing atop the $141 million settlement last year.
