What if my refund isn't enough to cover my TurboTax fees?

by TurboTax •   80
Updated December 15, 2025 6:56 AM

To use the Pay With Your Refund option, your federal or state (if applicable) refund amount must be sufficient to cover your prep fees, fees for any additional products and services, and applicable sales tax.

When you get ready to file, we won't offer Pay With Your Refund if your IRS  or state (if applicable) refund isn't enough to cover your total bill. In that case, you'll need to pay with a credit, debit, or prepaid card.

What happens if the IRS or state reduces my refund to the point where it no longer covers my TurboTax fees?

If you get hit with a refund offset, what's left over might not be enough to cover your fees. Here's what happens next:

  • We'll send an email with instructions on how to pay your TurboTax fees (minus the Pay With My Refund fee, if any) by a certain date.

  • If the fees remain unpaid by the specified date, we'll send two more follow-up emails asking that you either pay or request a deferment to prevent the fees from being automatically debited from your bank account.

  • Finally, if you still haven't paid by the requested date, we'll send a final email letting you know that we're debiting the fees (minus the Pay With My Refund fee, if any) and that the auto-debit process cannot be stopped.

The same thing happens if the IRS is still holding your refund 36 days after your original estimated refund date.

How do you justify debiting my account?

The provision is spelled out in the Pay With My Refund Agreement, which you agreed to when you opted to pay with your refund.

In addition, by clicking the "I Agree" button below, you electronically sign and authorize Intuit (through its third party processor) to debit the TurboTax Fees, Additional Products and Services Purchased and any applicable sales tax from your bank account number identified in the Agreement below, in the event that you do not receive a tax refund that is sufficient to pay for them.

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