Why we won't get our stimulus check in the bank....

If you used Turbo Tax (or a similar program) and owed fees for filing and then chose to have those fees deducted from your refund (instead of paying by credit or debit card), you will not be getting direct deposit. Even if your tax refund was direct deposited. They'll instead mail you a paper check when those start going out.

This is because Turbo Tax, for example, uses Santa Barbara Bank and Trust for their refunds. A temporary account was set up for you there, they floated you a loan (for like $30 to cover the Turbo Tax fees) and then they got your whole refund from the IRS, deducted their $30 and deposited the rest of your refund in your account. So the IRS had the Santa Barbara temporary account info and not your own personal account. So the IRS will then be sending you a check.

:(

We thought we'd get ours today in the bank. Made plans to pay bills and get the teenager her graduation present.

Won't happen now because we had our fees deducted from the refund earlier this year.

:(

stimulus money yesterday. :shrug:


*edited to add: not sure how she handled the e-filing fees at the time.

I gave Turbo Tax all of my checking account information.

Why would they do that if they're depositing it in some Santa Barbara bank?

They had the temporary acct at Santa Barbara Bank and Trust. That account was closed after they sent us our refund.

Since the IRS didn't have our bank information in the first place, they have send us a paper check.

I paid my Turbo Tax fees from my debit card directly.

I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

That explains it. I was expecting mine by today as well.

Ut oh.

x(

Here's the link to the IRS FAQ. The info is about halfway down the page.

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=182735,00.html

Q. I chose direct deposit for my 2007 tax refund but also requested my electronic filing and/or tax preparation fees be deducted from my refund. Does that affect my stimulus payment?

A. If you requested that your electronic filing or tax preparation fee be deducted from the amount of your refund, you have entered into a financial agreement with the tax preparation provider or e-file software company for a refund anticipated check (RAC). Both Refund Anticipation Checks (RACs) and Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) are bank products. The money that is deposited into your bank account comes from the financial institution associated with your electronic filing software provider or tax preparation provider, not directly from the IRS. Taxpayers who use RALs, RACs or enter into similar loans or financial agreements with their tax professional or tax software companies will not receive their economic stimulus payments by direct deposit. Instead they will get a paper check that will be issued according to the schedule that has been published for paper check distribution.

We got our refund direct-deposited last week.

No direct deposit for us because we opted to have the fees taken out of our refund rather than paying for it ourselves.

I was a bit disappointed in them. I had to pay $35 for the software and still pay for the fees. For years I had done it online thru H&R where I only had to bay the fees for filing but I thought with the new house I should try out this turbo tax.

So next year I'm thinking of going back to just doing it at H&R online again.