Some Turbo Tax users' stimulus checks delayed

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BY MICAH MERTES / Lincoln Journal Star

That economic stimulus check you were expecting to land in your bank account by now might take another month or two to get here.

It all seemed pretty clear cut. If you got your tax refund through direct deposit, your economic stimulus check would come the same way.

But IRS representatives say some people who used such tax preparation software as TurboTax could be getting a check in the mail instead of the direct deposit.

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Stimulus payments roll off printing presses at the San Francisco Regional Financial Center in Emeryville, Calif., on May 8. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Stimulus payments roll off printing presses at the San Francisco Regional Financial Center in Emeryville, Calif., on May 8. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

And paper checks could come as late as July.

If you used a tax preparation software to file your 2007 return, here’s how you might have been affected.

At the end of the electronic filing process, you had the option of using your credit card to pay a software fee or opting to have the software company deduct the fee directly from your tax refund.

If you chose the latter option, your return went to a third-party bank, where your fee was deducted and the rest of your refund sent to you. Checks to TurboTax users who chose this option went to Santa Barbara Bank and Trust in California first.

The ensuing problem for some is the IRS chose to issue the stimulus payments directly to the recipients — with no middle person in between. And if you didn’t get your refund direct-deposited, you won’t get your rebate that way either.

There’s no way for the IRS to get from point A (them) to point B (you) electronically, so the check you thought would go into your account will come in the mail.

“We have heard about this problem from a number of taxpayers,” said Christopher Miller, IRS media relations representative for Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska. “But we cannot quantify how many taxpayers are affected.”

The question, “Why hasn’t my stimulus payment come yet?” has been posed so many times the IRS has updated its Frequently Asked Questions section to include the answer.

IRS.gov doesn’t single out any one particular tax prep software in the section.

Tax preparer H&R Block issued a statement that taxpayers who used their services and received their refund through a third-party bank would also get their checks in the mail.

Miller said this is the  first time the IRS is distributing some tax rebate payments via direct deposit. Rebates in 1975, 2001 and 2003 were mailed.

TurboTax officials understand some customers are confused.

“We’re hearing from a lot of our customers who are using this (software fee payment) option,” said Julie Miller, director of tax product communications for Intuit Inc., which manufactures TurboTax.

Miller said the legislation for the stimulus package was signed in mid-February — the middle of tax season.

And after that, she said, it took a few more weeks for the tax preparation industry to receive all the information from the IRS.

By mid-March, TurboTax had the information that people who received their refunds through the third-party bank would get paper checks.

Miller said TurboTax customers can contact the company directly at (888) 777-4160.

A TurboTax statement said the company will continue to honor its money-back, satisfaction guarantee and also will offer an escalation process to customer who have faced financial hardship due to delayed rebates.

Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.