If you’re like many of Americans tax season is already stressful enough let alone during an entire pandemic trying to figure out all of the new laws that have arrived. Turbotax, however, decidedly has announced in a way that despite the IRS being responsible for refund delays — people’s accounts are set to be debited for their account fees.
Turbotax notoriously charges a series of fees for their services (generally which are pretty small but can add up.) In most cases, taxpayers can actually use their refund to pay for the costs and then they’re given the rest. The problem this year, however, is that not many people were aware that Turbotax in the least obvious “fine print” kind of way — has a clause in their refund processing agreement about whether or not a refund becomes delayed or reduced.
WHAT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT PEOPLE REALIZE GIVEN THE OBSCENE DELAYS AT THE IRS:
You can also be auto-debited if you signed up for Pay With My Refund and your refund is sufficient, but the IRS is still holding your refund 36 days after your original estimated refund date. In this case, you’ll get the same email notifications from us, except we will debit the Pay With My Refund fee (if any) in addition to your other TurboTax fees. Here is the verbiage used in your agreement: “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.”
*This is straight from Turbotax in exchanged DM ‘s confirming the move.
According to Turbotax it does not matter that the delays aren’t at the fault of everyday Americans:
When you agreed to use Refund Processing Service (also known as Pay with my Refund), you agreed that: If the IRS reduced your refund to an amount less that the amount owed for your TurboTax fees OR If there was a significant delay in the release of the refund by the IRS that TurboTax is authorized to debit your bank account. This process is called Auto Debit.
Turbotax declined to comment when asked whether or not they were going to acknowledge that they delays were on behalf of the IRS and not everyday Americans.
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