OMG this post saved me from making a huge mistake! My hubby and I were literally about to file separately w/ me claiming HOH + our kiddo to get max refund (our tax guy suggested it 🙄). After reading this, I checked the actual rules and realized we'd be committing fraud! We redid everything as MFJ yesterday and while our refund is about $1,800 less than what we thought we'd get, at least we won't be looking over our shoulders for the next 3 yrs waiting for the IRS to catch us! Thx for the reality check!

I've been through the offset nightmare back in 2022. They took my entire $4300 refund for a student loan I thought was discharged through a disability program. Turns out the discharge paperwork never went through properly. The frustrating part? I had been receiving letters saying my loans were discharged for TWO YEARS before they suddenly decided they weren't. When I finally got through to someone after calling for days, they admitted it was their error but still kept my money and made me reapply for the discharge program from scratch. The system is completely broken - they make errors, you pay for it, and then you have to jump through endless hoops to fix their mistakes.

Here's a fun fact - the 'DD' in DDD stands for 'Direct Deposit' Date, not 'Due Date' like some people think! 😊 Your situation is actually optimal because you paid fees upfront. When H&R Block has to take their fees from your refund, they set up a temporary bank account (SBTPG - Santa Barbara Tax Products Group) where your refund goes first, they take their cut, then forward the rest to you. That adds 1-3 days to the process. Since you didn't do that, your refund goes straight from IRS to your bank!

My situation was almost identical to yours - H&R Block, paid fees upfront, DDD of 4/8. The money hit my account on 4/5 (Friday before). My brother, on the other hand, had his fees taken from his refund with the same DDD, and his money didn't arrive until 4/9 (day after). The difference? Mine went straight to my bank while his had to route through H&R Block's bank partner first. Your situation is more like mine than his.

Word of caution here - I had a similar situation last year and made the mistake of calling my bank repeatedly about the pending deposit. This actually triggered a fraud alert on my account (too many inquiries about an incoming large deposit apparently looks suspicious), which delayed my refund by another 5 days while they "investigated." 🙄 Sometimes checking too frequently can backfire in unexpected ways. The SBTPG system is frustratingly opaque by design, I suspect.

Most people don't realize that SBTPG operates on a different timeline than the IRS. The community wisdom is that SBTPG usually updates late evening before your DDD. For 3/22 deposits, expect SBTPG to update tonight or early tomorrow morning. Almost everyone gets their money on the actual DDD despite what the tracker shows. This happens every tax season like clockwork.

Has anyone compared this TurboTax + Credit Karma timing to other scenarios? Like how does it compare to H&R Block's Emerald Card or to just getting a direct deposit to a regular bank account? I'm wondering if the Credit Karma card is actually faster or slower than other options.

Tax professional here. What's happening in your situation is like a relay race with multiple handoffs. Think of it this way: IRS → SBTPG (TurboTax's bank) → Credit Karma. Each handoff takes time. With direct deposit to your own bank, it's just one handoff: IRS → Your Bank. The advance is like getting a small head start while waiting for the full race to finish. In my clients' experience, TurboTax + Credit Karma typically results in funds being available 0-1 days before the official DDD about 70% of the time. The other 30% see it exactly on the DDD. The advance portion usually comes much earlier, but that's a separate transaction.

I'm in a similar situation and wondering if anyone knows what happens if you move after filing? I filed in January and then had to change addresses in February. I'm worried that if they sent a verification letter, it might have gone to my old address, just like what happened with my state tax refund last year.

Just to clarify something that hasn't been mentioned yet - if you do need to verify and decide to call instead of using the online portal, make sure you're calling the specific number for identity verification (800-830-5084). That's different from the general IRS number, and the hold times are usually shorter. When I called in March, I only waited about 35 minutes, which is practically lightning speed for the IRS.