Regardless of the reason why the tax preparer chooses to give a refund, it is a refund of the user fee, not a refund of tax money from the IRS. Discounts, refunds and coupons are between you and the service provider and are not taxable income unless you previously deducted the preparer fees as a business expense, in which case the refund is business income.
The downside of reporting it as taxable income when it is not, is that you pay extra taxes that you don’t have to pay.
If you want to pay taxes on money that is not taxable income, why did you come here asking for advice?
