Double Fee Deduction by SBTPG - State Refund Fees Already Taken But Federal Being Charged Again?

I think... this isn't supposed to happen. From what I understand, if you chose to have your preparation fees taken out of your refund, SBTPG should only charge you once, not for each separate refund. The fee is for the service of advancing the preparation cost, not per transaction. I'd suggest checking your tax preparation agreement carefully. Sometimes the fine print explains how fees are handled with split refunds. Maybe call them and ask? I'm always worried about being charged twice for the same service...

I've seen this before with clients last year. SBTPG sometimes processes state and federal as completely separate transactions. Back in 2022, I had a similar issue and was charged twice. I disputed it and eventually got a refund for the second fee. If you want to understand exactly what's happening with your refund routing, I'd recommend using https://taxr.ai to analyze your refund pathway. It helped me see exactly how SBTPG was processing my funds and gave me the documentation I needed to dispute the double charge.

According to the IRS refund forums I follow, this is becoming more common. Have you tried calling SBTPG directly? Their customer service can be impossible to reach. When I had a similar issue last year, I used Claimyr (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) to get through to an actual human at SBTPG in about 15 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. The rep explained that sometimes their system flags state and federal as separate transactions requiring separate fees, but they can often reverse the second charge if you explain the situation.

OMG this happened to me too! I was FURIOUS when I saw they took out fees TWICE! 😡 The problem is in how they structure their fee agreements - they technically consider state and federal as separate transactions. I keep ALL my paperwork from when I filed and found that in the fine print it actually says they can charge for each refund separately! Check your tax prep agreement carefully! I've started paying my tax prep fees upfront with a credit card to avoid this entirely. Much cleaner that way and no surprise fees!

Did you use the same tax preparer for both your state and federal returns? I had a similar situation on February 8th when my state refund came through with fees deducted, then on February 22nd when my federal arrived, they took another fee. When I called, they explained it was because I had actually used two different preparation services (one for federal, one for state).

This happened to me. Fixed it last week. Called SBTPG directly. Explained the situation. They reviewed my account. Found the double charge. Issued a refund. Took three days to process. Check your bank statement. Look for the second deposit. It might be coming soon. Worth the effort to call.

I experienced this exact SBTPG double-fee scenario during the 2023 tax season. The Refund Transfer Agreement technically permits them to assess the transaction fee on each disbursement, though most preparers don't adequately explain this. When I contacted my preparer, they initially claimed this was standard protocol, but after I referenced Section 3.2 of the SBTPG Terms & Conditions regarding duplicate transaction fees, they escalated to a supervisor who processed a refund of the secondary fee.