Is TurboTax really rejecting our stimulus payments like I read online?

[JMB2K]

I read online that these ***** for brains are rejecting our stimulus payments and causing them to be mailed, which they had my old address on file and this ***** will have completely ***** my rent off.

[xmasbaby0]

TurboTax is not receiving your stimulus payment, nor is TurboTax issuing your stimulus payment.  It comes from the IRS.

See this information from the IRS:

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/treasury-and-irs-begin-delivering-second-round-of-economic-impact-payme...

From the IRS:

How do I find out if the IRS is sending me a payment?

People can check the status of both their first and second payments by using the Get My Payment tool, available in English and Spanish only on IRS.gov. The tool is being updated with new information, and the IRS anticipates the tool will be available again in a few days for taxpayers.

How will the IRS know where to send my payment? What if I changed bank accounts?

The IRS will use the data already in our systems to send the new payments. Taxpayers with direct deposit information on file will receive the payment that way. For those without current direct deposit information on file, they will receive the payment as a check or debit card in the mail. For those eligible but who don’t receive the payment for any reason, it can be claimed by filing a 2020 tax return in 2021. Remember, the Economic Impact Payments are an advance payment of what will be called the Recovery Rebate Credit on the 2020 Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR.

Where can I get more information?

For more information about Economic Impact Payments and the 2020 Recovery Rebate, key information will be posted on IRS.gov/eip You may check the status of your payment at IRS.gov/GetMyPayment. For other COVID-19-related tax relief, visit IRS.gov/Coronavirus.

https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment-frequently-asked-questions

When you prepare your 2020 tax return you can change your address in My Info--but that will not go to the IRS until you file your tax return.  The IRS will not be accepting 2020 returns until the end of January.

To change your address now with the IRS  --- but this takes weeks --

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

https://www.irs.gov/faqs/irs-procedures/address-changes/address-changes

Make sure the post office is forwarding your mail.

From the IRS

My address has changed or is incorrect. What can I do to change or correct it to receive my Payment?...

Get My Payment won't allow you to change your address. If you need to change your address, see Address changes.

[DoninGA]

TurboTax does not receive any type of tax refund, federal or state.  Nor does TurboTax receive or process any type of Economic Impact Payment (stimulus).

The stimulus payment will go to the account you entered for direct deposit on the 2019 tax return.  The direct deposit information cannot be changed.  If the account is closed the IRS will send the payment by mail or on a debit card.

Go to this IRS website for stimulus information - https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/treasury-and-irs-begin-delivering-second-round-of-economic-impact-payme...

Go to this IRS website to check the status of your payment - https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment

If you do not receive the second stimulus payment on or before January 15, 2021 and you are eligible it will be entered on your federal tax return, Form 1040 on Line 30.

The Form 1040 has not been finalized and needs to updated to include the 2nd Economic Impact Payment.

[JMB2K]

So you're saying this is inaccurate? I would be completely fine with what's going on if just one company would come out and admit what the actual problem is instead of deflecting or ignoring that there is a problem...this is insane.

TurboTax, H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, and Taxslayer are the main ones who use SBTPG tax products.

If thats you then listen up.

First of all what is SBTPG? Plain and simple in a nutshell, they are the company that gives all these Tax Preparation services, temporary tax refund accounts. So what that means is anytime you get a refund back from the IRS for anything, the money first gets sent to a deposit in SBTPGS temporary accounts. It sits there while TurboTax and all these other companies take our a portion of your refund for fees.

After that, the money is then sent back to you. The problem is, for whatever **bleep**ing reason, the IRS has had a MAJOR system error that has sent back all those refunds to SBTPG once again, except into old accounts. Some people got them accurately sent into new accounts.

Meaning the IRS error used all those old temporary accounts to deposit your money into. And thats wherein the problem lies. SBTPG has rejected a portion of those deposits that were unfortunately sent to the old accounts that dont exist anymore.

So if you filed your taxes with a company that uses SBTPG, and you still dont have your deposit by now, theres a 95% chance your **bleep** got rejected bc it was sent to an old account that doesnt exist anymore.

This also holds true for people who are being shown that the second stimmy was deposited into an account with numbers they dont recognize. Of course you dont recognize them. Because theyre the numbers to an old SBTPG account you were never even supposed to see. You basically saw the internal workings of the SBTPG system.

In other words, look forward to waiting weeks for a paper check or EIP card. Seriously, thats what is happening.

Most Banks are now reporting on this to some degree. Some are outright saying its related to SBTPG, others are simply reffering to a massive IRS system wide error. Its all the same though.

[Opus 17]

Thats basically correct, but the problem is not with Turbotax the Company, and Turbotax never touches your refund and can't fix anything.

The problem is that (a) you did something foolish by using refund transfer, because you paid $40 to do something that should have cost less than $7 and you agreed to put a third party bank in between you and the IRS.  Then (b) the IRS screwed up, because they know exactly which accounts are temporary and should have mailed checks automatically to people who used refund transfer, and (c) when the IRS created a web site so taxpayers could update their bank account information you apparently didn't use it.

During the first round of stimulus payments, when the IRS sent some rebates to SBTPG by mistake, SBTPG tried to forward the money to the taxpayer if they could.  For the second round, SBTPG has decided to simply bounce all payments.  This actually makes sense to me since (1) you had a chance to update your banking info with the IRS, and (2) if you are not an ongoing customer of SBTPG they have no way of knowing if the account you used for your tax refund last March is still the correct account for you.

https://www.sbtpg.com/coronavirus-stimulus-payment-info/

[Opus 17]

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@JMB2K wrote:

So you're saying this is inaccurate? I would be completely fine with what's going on if just one company would come out and admit what the actual problem is instead of deflecting or ignoring that there is a problem...this is insane.

I actually saw a brief statement about this from HRB on my local news, although I haven't seen anything from Turbotax.

Basically this: No one could have predicted that refund transfer would be a huge problem in 2020, but it was never a smart idea even in a normal year to pay 8X the price for a service that sounds convenient but puts someone you don't know in between you and your refund. 

[JMB2K]

No reason to be smug.

I didn't realize that I was putting a third party bank between me and the IRS when I agreed to pay for services out of my refund, but I didn't have the money at the moment so I did what worked best for me, but we can call it foolish - that's fine. 

When the IRS released a webpage to update my banking information, for some reason I didn't think that I would need to update banking information that I used to get my refunds and first stimulus check since, you know, my bank account information had not changed in that time - again, let's just call foolish, silly me.

[Opus 17]

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@JMB2K wrote:

No reason to be smug.

I didn't realize that I was putting a third party bank between me and the IRS when I agreed to pay for services out of my refund, but I didn't have the money at the moment so I did what worked best for me, but we can call it foolish - that's fine. 

When the IRS released a webpage to update my banking information, for some reason I didn't think that I would need to update banking information that I used to get my refunds and first stimulus check since, you know, my bank account information had not changed in that time - again, let's just call foolish, silly me.

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I didn't mean to be smug.  Although I volunteer here, I don't agree with everything Turbotax does, and refund transfer is about the worst.  I suppose if you have no money whatsoever, then you're in a tight spot.  But if you can come up with $60 or so, you can buy Turbotax at Staples or Best Buy and install it on your own computer (as low as $40 at Costco) and pay nothing else to file.  Or if you want to use Turbotax online, you can buy a debit card for $5-7, load it with cash at the store counter, and use it to pay the fees, instead of paying an extra $40 service charge on top of the fees.  

Based on the statement from SBTPG that the IRS is not sending stimulus payments to refund transfer banks, it seems like the main error in this case is due to the IRS, although it only affects people who also used refund transfer. 

[Bradybil85]

[comment removed] 

[NicoMonroe]

DO NOT try and sidetrack yourself from this. TURBO TAX IS THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR GETTING TO CORRECT ACCOUNT. LIKE YOU SO DEARLY SAID IN AN EMAIL SENT TO ITS CUSTOMERS. AND WHAT DO YOU DO?? THE SAME THING. I Went from getting it deposited in the first round, to March 24th.......repeating a deposit to the same **bleep**ing closed account, after I updated it. NOW IT HAS CHANGED TO APRIL @2nd BEING MAILED. I AM NOW GOING ON A MONTH WAITING FOR A PAYMENT THAT TURBO TAX ASSURED WOULD GO IN THE ACCOUNT I ENTERED IN PORTAL. 

 I WILL NO LONGER BE USING TURBO TAX AFTER 7 years. HONESTY IS EVERYTHING< ESPECIALLY WHEN PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING......

[NicoMonroe]

DO NOT try and sidetrack yourself from this. TURBO TAX IS THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR GETTING TO CORRECT ACCOUNT. LIKE YOU SO DEARLY SAID IN AN EMAIL SENT TO ITS CUSTOMERS. AND WHAT DO YOU DO?? THE SAME THING. I Went from getting it deposited in the first round, to March 24th.......repeating a deposit to the same f****g closed account, after I updated it. NOW IT HAS CHANGED TO APRIL @2nd BEING MAILED. I AM NOW GOING ON A MONTH WAITING FOR A PAYMENT THAT TURBO TAX ASSURED WOULD GO IN THE ACCOUNT I ENTERED IN PORTAL. 

 I WILL NO LONGER BE USING TURBO TAX AFTER 7 years. HONESTY IS EVERYTHING< ESPECIALLY WHEN PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING......