It's not often a company actively answers questions, especially on a web site they don't manage. That's why I was a little surprised to see comments on this site from Bob Meighan, a Vice President at Intuit, the company that makes TurboTax. TurboTax has taken a lot of heat from people upset over the confusion surrounding the stimulus payment and TurboTax.
What's the Issue?
Apparently TurboTax allows you to pay your filing fee using your anticipated tax refund. To facilitate this, TurboTax uses a third party bank, Like Santa Barbara Bank And Trust (SBBT) to handle the processing. Essentially, SBBT gets the payment from the IRS and puts your money in your account, minus the fees. That's the basics anyway, the details may vary.
It turns out that when any third party banking product is involved, the IRS sends a check, even though you may have included your direct deposit account information on your tax return. By third party banking product, I mean anything except a direct deposit into your checking or savings account by the IRS.
I don't think this issue is unique to TurboTax. However, many readers seemed to be affected and many of them left their questions and concerns in the comments section of my first article on TurboTax stimulus payment questions.
Stimulus Payment Operation Problems
I have to admit I was overwhelmed by the number of questions I've received about the stimulus payment. At times the information has changed or has been updated by the IRS as new details become available.
The constantly changing status of the payments and the late passing of the Economic Stimulus Package relative to tax season left most institutions unprepared. I'm guessing the last thing that the IRS and the tax preparation services needed was the stimulus payment right in the middle of tax time.
So it's no surprise that there have been problems. I'm not really surprised by the governments ability to cause mass confusion.
TurboTax Responds
In the midst of these problems, people who E-filed with TurboTax and used their refund to pay their filing fee were confused about how they would receive their stimulus payment.
It's been my experience that most companies circle the wagons and do not admit fault when there is a problem. For that matter, most companies will never admit there is a problem, whether it is the company's fault or not.
I have to give some amount of credit to TurboTax. One of their vice presidents, Bob Meighan, has been responding to customer comments and questions. According to his Amazon Blog Profile "[a]s vice president for consumer advocacy in the TurboTax organization, he represents customers to ensure that new products meet their needs. He also shares the knowledge he gains from customers throughout the TurboTax development teams."
Bob's answers are generally positive, informative and helpful. I thought I would highlight a few of them here as they provide some useful information for those who filed with TurboTax.
These are excerpts of comments taken from the original TurboTax article. I've added bold font to draw out important points. Please see the original article for all of the comments.
Nikki, Laura, Twanda… Your printed return (PDF) on your computer shows nothing about the REBATES because the legislation wasn’t even passed when you filed. In other words, there was no rebate program at that time. However, we updated TurboTax when the legislation was passed and so when you went back to TurboTax you would have gotten an updated printout showing the rebate information. I believe the fact that rebates weren’t passed until the middle of tax season (and the details of how they would processed until almost the end of tax season) is something that many of us overlook.
As for why we haven’t done a better job communicating this issue… For many of the affected customers, we did not have in place a “rebate indicator” to quickly respond to these people. Yes, we know who our customers are but we may not always know whether a specific situation applies to you. We have privacy laws that prevent us from arbitrarily going through tax returns for stuff like this. We do have other ways of getting the necessary information, but it is much more labor intensive and it is something we are working to get. Had we known at the beginning of tax season that Congress would be implementing rebates, we could have fashioned a communications mechanism that timely advised you of everything you wanted to know about your rebate.
I hope this helps explain some things.
Comment From Twanda:
Thanks Bob. Im not disputing anything about tt or sbbt. I understand perfectly. If im due a rebate great. I just dont understand how some can receive dd using sbbt and others not when we used the same software and paid fees with our return and also how could numbers after mine be receiving a check this wk when according to the posted schedule they should be issued in june. I know you cant explain but just think about it. How much since does that really make? Does anyone else know of others who should be getting paper checks after them and are already scheduled to receive payment?
Bob's response:
Twanda… I can’t explain some of the anomalies we’ve read about here. They do not make sense to me, to the IRS and to SBBT. That’s why I’m asking anyone who used TurboTax, paid using SBBT and received their rebate by DD to please contact SBBT at 877-908-7228. That will help us understand what is going on. If you do call, pls tell them to escalate your issue to Doug B per Bob Meighan.
I think that last answer is especially helpful. Hopefully by contacting SBBT, any readers who've had problems will be able to get this issue resolved.
Keep in mind I have no affiliation with TurboTax or Intuit. I don't have any motivation here except simply trying to find some answers for readers of this site (and saving myself from Carpal Tunnel syndrome). It's become a part time job just responding to comments on the articles, let alone researching any new information.
Hopefully, more companies will follow the example of TurboTax and take an active role in helping to solve their customers' problems.
Tags Direct Deposit Economic Stimulus IRS Stimulus Payment Taxes TurboTaxRelated Posts
- IRS Economic Stimulus Payment Article Index
- TurboTax Direct Deposit Stimulus Payment Questions
- Where Is My Stimulus Payment?
- IRS Where’s My Stimulus Payment Web Page Broken?
- 15,000 Stimulus Checks Sent to Wrong People by IRS
Comments
16 Comments so far
I must say that I was a bit upset when I found out that we'd be receiving a paper check, considering that we went thru TT & SBB&T and had direct deposit.
That was until I saw the comments/answers from Bob explaining the situation. It was at the point when I stopped blaming TT & SBB&T and realized that what he was saying made sense.
I know I haven't said it but thanks Bob Meighan for all your help in explaining the situation and for your continued comments/help to those that can't quite figure it out.
I am sending this again cause i think went to the wrong date, I have a ssn and one of my sons does too, but i filled jointly with my wife and she has a ITIN and also my other child, I am first and they are my dependants, will I receive a stymulus check?
thanks for your help.
Domingo,
You should receive a payment for yourself and your son.
Nate Ruden last 2 (32) of soc.
I filed my taxes Feb. 20th. I had to file in two states (minn and iowa); I recieved my federal and state refund electronically but the Iowa had to be mailed because they could only do 1 state electronically(bigger return for Minn). I recieved the letter in the mail about getting my stimulus, but I was scheduled to recieve my stimulus via direct deposit (H&R block) on May 9th and I haven’t had anything yet? Any insight would help!
No one received a dd if they used sbbt otherwise they would have responded to Bob.
I received dd and used sbbt and so did my mother. (I posted that last week)
I was wondering if anyone could answer this: I have a friend who is trying to check on her stimilus payment using the IRS "where's my stimulus payment" and it comes back saying "no info at this time". What does this mean? She will get a paper check?
This is pure bull. We TT users who paid EXTRA money for e-filing AND then extra money for direct-depositing are now getting checks late in the mail. I sure won't be using e-file and direct deposit in the future. I'm going to put that money in my pocket too.
I think it is awful what has happened to us Turbo Tax users. Firstly, we paid a fee for a rapid refund which turned out to not be rapid because of a hold for some tax legislation. We were not even offered a refund for this amount paid. Now, we have to wait on the tax stimulus refund and because of the last 4 digits of my ss#, I will have to wait until July to get my stimulus check. Turbo tax, I am surprised that no attempts have been made to try and rectify this issue. I'm sure this is going to affect your business in the tax seasons to come. I will not be using your service again and have been a faithful customer for myself and a family member for the last several years. I think your customers need to be compensated in some way for the inconvenience. I, for one, did not see anything posted about the stimulus payment issue on the website. I am very dissapointed in your service. Good luck in the coming year because I believe you are going to lose a lot more business than mine.
Brenda let me clear something up. YOU didn't pay for Rapid Refund you paid for Refund Transfer BECAUSE as "BOB" said TT doesn't offer Rapid Refund or whatever RAL. You and I mearly waiting for the IRS to do our refund and we unknowinly ask for SBBT to do the transaction. I am sure you are like I and did not really even know about the Stimuls, because like most people we filed early (2/08)and the Stimulus wasn't even a done deal nor did TT offer any kind of information on the stimulus UNTIL it was approved, now I do wonder if those who were asked when filing with TT actually got DD(assuming the used SBBT).
So like me we are going to be WAITING for the snail mail to send our stimulus payment. I think SBBT could have opened up again the temp account or contact customers right away not 3 weeks after the Stimulus were being paid out. So I am with you VERY DISAPPOINTED as to how it was handle~ we have learned a long lesson.
LG #57
Bob,
This is from another lady(jessica) this is what she wrote. Explain this??
My husband and I rec’d our refund DD. When we rec’d the IRS notice we were excited to see that we would be in the 2nd group of taxpayers to receive the stimulus payment thru DD by 5/9/08.
I realized that we had paid our fees out of our refund w/ SBBT and figured I would have to wait until June 13th to receive a paper check (as per the schedule for paper checks.) 2nd notice and the website said it would be issued by 5/16/08.
IT WAS THERE TODAY 5/19/08!!! Last 2 digits 40.
Now, I’m off to show self control and deposit it into savings….. Well at least for now!
Best Wishes to All!!
I owed the IRS $125 which was deducted from my checking account using my bank info. I used turbo tax and they deducted their fees as well. While I filed well before the 4/15 deadline the taxes weren't withdrawn from my account until 4/15. My direct deposit info is on my return, yet May 16 has come and gone. My info doesn't show up on the IRS where's my stimulus payment site. Anyone have any clues? Paper or dd?
Wendy,
You're getting a paper check.
We should have had our stimulus package automaticly deposted into our checking account on May 9th and we have not received it yet and have not been told by anyone why it has not been sent or deposted. We have not received any notice at all pertaining to the stimulus check. When will ours arrive?
I filed my taxes on April 9th. I filed married but filing separate from my spouse. If he didn't file his taxes the same time as mine will that affect me receiving my stimulus payment?
well, i've used tt since the 80s, and this was the first time i electronically filed and i have to say will be the last time. to unknowingly us santa barbara bank, the fees doubled. and was embarrassed i used this process, cause believe me i didn't have too. just seemed convenient. sbb should be sending us some rebates, or doing something for this. but i'm an idiot only once. wont happen again.
I have to say the IRS Sucks they don't know anything they can't say if you even are or not getting a check only what the web site said for the schedule, so DON"T call they can't or have not a clue..
My friend mailed her tax documents get her 2007 tax refund of about $8,000 she didn't not have dd she was sent a check. Yesterday she got a letter stating she should have her Stimulus payment 5/30 here is the ironic part her last digit are 94… COME ON there is NO RYME or REASON TO ANY OF THIS!! I guess I feel using SBBT is holding it up why are higher numbers getting theres, also she really doesn't even need it..
LG #57