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Wondering where your coronavirus stimulus payment is? The delay could be due to a glitch related to your tax preparation service.
A new report from The Washington Post on Thursday estimates that millions of Americans could still be waiting to see their stimulus money if they previously filed their taxes with companies like TurboTax, H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt.
Those companies allow consumers to pay for their services through their tax refunds. So the company typically receives the refund first, takes out the fees for its services and then distributes the money to customers.
Consequently, the IRS may only have temporary bank accounts on file for those individuals, the report said.
In a statement, TurboTax, which is owned by Intuit Inc., denied this is a problem for its customers.
“The bank account information for TurboTax filers is transmitted to the IRS as a part of the tax return,” said TurboTax spokeswoman Ashley McMahon. “The IRS has the appropriate banking information for all TurboTax filers, which can be used by them to distribute stimulus payments.”
Some TurboTax customers have chosen to receive their stimulus payments through either a refund transfer or debit card, McMahon said. But that should not preclude those taxpayers from getting their money.
“Any TurboTax customer who selected refund transfer or a debit card that gets a stimulus payment sent from the IRS to those accounts will receive those stimulus payments without delay or fees,” McMahon said.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Jackson Hewitt said the company is sending consumers with questions to the Get My Payment app the government launched this week.
“The IRS has not announced how it will send the stimulus payment to taxpayers who selected Assisted Refund (AR) and/or Refund Advance (RA) bank products during their most recent tax filing,” a Jackson Hewitt spokeswoman said. “We are directing clients to Get My Payment to find their payment status, type and whether the IRS needs more information, including bank account information.”
Requests for comment to H&R Block, the IRS and Treasury Department were not immediately returned.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.