[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Where's My Tax Rebate, Uncle Sam? here

[hawhite]

I used Turbo Tax as well, and I never let them deduct it from the refund. I have been under the impression that Intuit, gets the refund and then forwards it to you, in some form or another. If some form of management of the refund occurs, I am sure there is some overhead that has to happen, by some party which I assume is not the federal government. From the government's perspective, it either wasn't direct deposited to one account that you own or it wasn't direct deposited to you alone.

[smax013]

I agree that it is strange that having the $20 fee deducted rather than paying for a credit card would cause a delay. It would be nice to have a full technical explanation. I can only assume that a refund that has the $20 fee deducted is processed differently than a refund that has the fee paid by a credit card...and the difference in the processing results in the IRS NOT direct depositing your rebate (my rebate has already been deposited...but then I paid the fee with a credit card like I always do).



It also agree that it is kind of crappy that Intuit did NOT have the TurboTax software tell you about that issue but rather had to go to the website. That is Intuit's bag.



OTOH, why I can understand the frustration, I am not sure that I have too much sympathy when we are talking about a delay of getting their "free money" from the goberment. Also keep in mind that under the original time estimate when the stimulus rebate program was being debated, NO ONE was supposed to get the rebates until so time in June or July. Thus, you are really complaining about not getting it early compared to when it was originally supposed to come.



Thus, in the grand scheme of things, I can understand the frustion and even will admit that there is some validity to it...but OTOH, I don't exactly have any sympathy...as you will eventually get it. Considering the goberment did not have to give ANY of us anything, I am not sure I consider it a "complaint" worthy issue.



Just my opinion...worth $0.02 or less (and, no I will not be direct depositing it)

[mslw57]

I used H&R Block and let the 14.99 be deducted. I'm still waiting on my money also, Basically we are just screwed and we can't call and just cust out the IRS. So we will just have to wait. Maybe it will come in time for school clothes

[BorisDBlade]

I am in the same boat for having used H&R Block for taxes. I was eager to recieve the stimulus checks for my family as well. The direct deposit day came and went, no money. I had my wife call the IRS to ask about it 'cause I was very upset and wouldn't have made much progess by yelling at someone I don't know. The IRS claimed that because we used a 3rd party and we had the fees deducted before it was deposited, we are getting ours at the tail end of July. We filed ours at the end of January. We never recieved any emails, notifications, even a call saying "uh, hey, you won't get your checks until July because of this." By default, the government has never done anything easily or swiftly. And this administration is a joke in my opinion. "Throw money at the problems, make them go away." should be Bush's motto. Katrina was a big flubber and how could the government not know it was coming. It didn't spring up in one day and say "Here I am". They threw money at the problem.

But I digress, I think it's a pitiful sham to keep people in the dark about what is happening and the blog is right: Hindsight is always 20/20. Get someone with 20/20 frontsight for a change, even 20/40 will suffice now aday.

[JimC]

What about those of us who owed money and had the IRS take the money out of our checking account? Nobody is talking about this scenario. The IRS has my checking account information. According to their schedule my tax rebate check should have been deposited weeks ago, yet I have not received it. I can only assume that my check is going to be mailed to me. I can't understand why. If they can take money out of my checking account, why then can't they put money into my account?

[shipmate]

I paid Turbo Tax with a credit card.. My IRS and State taxes due were taken directly from my checking account on April 15, so the IRS had all the necessary info to make a seemless transfer of funds...but as of today still no rebate

[abbiethekitty]

I have been a receptionist at H&R Block for 15 years and I had to explain this to a lot of people this year. It is fairly simple if you think about it for a second.
In order to pay electronically out of your original refund your refund went first to a financial partner of your tax preparer. In H&R Blocks case it went to a bank first. Then the bank sent it on to your checking account.
When it works right it only takes seconds and you don't even know your refund has been traveling all over before most of it makes it into your account.
However, now the government wants to send your stimulus rebate and the first electronic address is not you, but some bank. You do not want your stimulus rebate going to some bank you never heard of.
So now you get a check.
See I told you it was simple. But not fast, I will agree with you on that.

[George1979]

Now I know why I do not do direct deposit, never have! But right form the get go we were all told that the majority of people would not receive their check until June anyway, and the rest in July. So why is PC World so inpatient? Its not even June yet!

[Gymnbat]

I too have yet to receive my stimulus check. I used Turbo Tax and I paid the $20.00 electronic filing fee by credit card. I did not get a refund, I owed tax so I allowed IRS to deduct what I owed directly from my checking account. I wonder, since I have not received my stimulus payment, if you had to get a refund to have your payment deposited into your account. I guess I will just have to wait untill the deadline comes and goes for the paper check to see if there is still another glitch!

[Adama]

I didn't have to pay any taxes nor get a refund this year. So instead of receiving a direct deposit like always, I'm having to wait for my check.
Reminds me of "The check's in the mail."

us !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1! gov... LOL

[shireytx]

Everybody should have known everything and there is never an excuse for a problem or delay...now really. Take out a loan or charge those wanted toys to your credit card...if you really can't wait. My Goodness gracious, poor little me!!

[OgieO]

Tom... this is money you wouldn't have had anyway. Maybe you shouldn't have spent it before it arrived. It's too bad that you're mad because your free money isn't arriving in a timely fashion.

[coastie65]

As I am retired on a VA Disability Pension, I no longer file taxes. I am aware of those Tax Prep apps that are out there, but have never had to use them as I always filed a short form. A $20 fee to e-file? What a scam. Print the darn thing out and mail it as the postage is cheaper. The turnaround time mailing it was roughly six weeks. I could wait that long, as it usually sat around until I got my State Refund before being deposited. This year I did have to fill out a short form to get my $300 that I was told by the VA that I was eligible for. I do have direct deposit with the VA for my check, but will be receiving a paper check for the tax payment in July. It'll go into my checking account, as I don't have anything on my wish list anyway. Bottom line is, I have never held the IRS to a timeline when it came to Tax Refunds as it never seemed all that important, as I knew I would eventually receive it. coastie65

[jlee247]

You can add another problem with the rebates to your list. We filed electronically through Intuit, but rather than have a refund we owed a balance which we direced the IRS to automatically deduct from our checking account. This they did, but when it came time to deposit our rebate the IRS appears to have lost us as nothing has been deposited to date (5/25/2008). They have our bank info, how difficult would it be to simply deposit the rebate and save themselves some money on printing & postage (the government save money?)??????

Jerry L

[RNR19952]

Rebates are a bunch of cr@p. If the government really wanted to help the economy, they could force gas companies to lower the price. Or determine that fuel is a public utility because it is a necessity. The high cost of fuel affects everything. We have been getting ripped of by big oil for over 100 years, there are technologies available today that could run a car off of electricity or WATER! There are alternative energy patents that have been squashed by big oil with the help of our own government. You want to see a movie that will at least open one eye, it is called "who killed the electric car" and it was put out by Sony of all companies. Google this and read some results OTC X1. The two water technologies that could run a car, I have videos that appeared on FOX news. And if the government REALLY wanted you to have some spending money, maybe they could lower your taxes instead of stealing half of what you make. And I call it stealing because the average citizen has no voice in this government, they just tax, tax ,tax, and then give it all away to corporations, other countries etc. When the last time any of you actually spoken to one of you representatives? And if you want to protest make sure you have a permit. Yes you need a permit to protest otherwise you get arrested and or tazered. HMM is that really a protest?

[g4acre]

I owed them as well, so I will be one of the last to receive my check. don't really care as $600 will only fill my SUV up 2-3 times by the time it arrives with the rate gas is rising. maybe I can use it to take my boat for a ride.wont be boating very much this season.with gas-& I live in Illinois where we had our electric rates triple last year.so we are hurting here in the midwest already. G4acre :_|

[dwall]

EXACT same scenario for me :(

[Karen1994]

Our tax preparer used TurboTax but did NOT have the fee deducted from our refund, which was deposited electornically into our account the 2nd week of February. We don't fall under any of the excuses given thus far but yet have still not received the rebate. The only other excuse anyone can come up with seems to be they are making sure we have all the kids we have.. 12! But they'd know that from previous tax returns and we included everyone's SSN in this yr's tax return. OR our check got deposited into someone else's account. What recourse do we have?

[4doggy]

That's another reason for using TaxAct. It's free, and the friends I did taxes for have already received their money.