TurboTax, H&R Block Customers Say Stimulus Checks Went to Wrong Accounts

March
18, 2021

4 min read

TurboTax and H&R Block customers are voicing their anger after learning that two tax-preparation companies sent their stimulus payments to the wrong accounts. 

The news comes after TurboTax announced on Twitter that it had worked with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure the agency had the correct bank account information to distribute the checks. The company also told customers that the payment would be based on information from their latest tax return and that the money would go directly to the bank account or address that the IRS had on file. 

In a press release, H&R Block similarly said it understood “how important coronavirus relief benefits, including third stimulus payments, are to millions of American households and small business owners,” providing information on when customers should expect their money.

Still, many customers said they haven’t seen the payments in their accounts. Longtime TurboTax customer Keri Behling told CNBC that she checked the status of her payment on the IRS’s Get My Payment tool but saw that the funds had been deposited in the wrong bank account. Behling said she had the same issue with her second stimulus payment. 

“I sat on hold with the IRS for over an hour,” Behling said, adding that TurboTax had told her that there was nothing it could do to help her. “The person who finally answered … placed me on hold and it brought me back to a recording that said my call could not be completed.”

Tiffany Rabon, who also used TurboTax to file her taxes, said she experienced the same issue. Rabon’s payment had reportedly been deposited into a closed bank account. “Why should we have to be punished to wait on our stimulus money when it was not our mistake?” she asked. 

Twitter users also took to the social media platform to direct their frustration at the company. 

“I made sure our address information matched that of my bank due to the fact our second check was mailed and lost,” one person wrote. “We still haven’t received our third payments despite the fact our bank told us they’ve already begun depositing. also never received a refund.”

“Never again with this company and to think I gave you all another chance not only the first and second stimulus money I had to wait on but now the third thanks so much Turbo Tax,” another added. “Just sayin I’m sure you all will go out of business and [it’s] all your fault!!”

In response to the backlash, a TurboTax spokesperson told CNBC that the account issue has only impacted a “small group” of customers. An H&R Block spokesperson also said the incidents were “isolated.” Last year, the tax preparation companies came under fire after the IRS mistakenly sent the second stimulus payments to temporary “pass-through” accounts that had been set up in previous years.  

An IRS spokesperson told CNBC that any payments that had been sent this month to closed accounts would be returned and reissued in less than two weeks. 

“We are working hard to minimize the burden on taxpayers wherever possible during this extraordinary time,” the spokesperson said. “We have been working around the clock on the stimulus payments and the filing season.”

For more information about the stimulus plan, see our coverage below: