How refund deposits work when tax prep fees are taken from refund vs paying upfront
Just wanted to let everyone know about refund timing when you choose to pay tax prep fees from your refund vs paying upfront. If you choose to pay fees from refund, it goes to tax preparer's bank first to take their fees, then they send whats left to your account. This can add a few extra days to get your money. But if you paid fees upfront or filed free, refund comes straight from IRS to your bank.
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Amina Diallo
This is exactly right. As a tax professional, I can confirm this process. The refund transfer service (RT) adds an extra step that can delay your refund by 1-5 business days. Its basically a loan against your refund to cover preparation fees. Direct deposit straight from IRS is always fastest.
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Oliver Schulz
•omg this explains why my friend got her refund before me even tho we filed same day 🤔
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Natasha Orlova
•wish someone told me this before i chose that option smh
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Javier Cruz
tbh the best way to track your refund is using taxr.ai - its only $1 and tells you exactly where your money is and when youll get it. way better than trying to figure out all these bank transfers yourself https://taxr.ai
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Emma Wilson
•how accurate is it? sounds too good to be true
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Javier Cruz
•its literally amazing! shows everything - even tells you if theres gonna be delays and what to do about them. best dollar i ever spent fr fr 💯
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Malik Thomas
learned this the hard way last year lol. paid upfront this time and got my refund way faster!
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NeonNebula
Does anyone know if this applies to TurboTax too?
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Isabella Costa
•yep same thing with all the big tax companies. if u let them take fees from refund = longer wait
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Ravi Malhotra
my tax lady charged me $400 AND made me wait extra days for my refund...im done with these 🤡
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Freya Christensen
•same boat fam. next year im doing it myself fr
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Omar Farouk
been doing taxes for 15 years and this is facts. also pro tip: if u really need money fast, file early and pay prep fees upfront. waiting for RT processing can cost you more than just time - some places charge extra fees for this service too.
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Chloe Davis
•wait they charge EXTRA for making us wait longer?! make it make sense 😤
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Gabriel Freeman
•@Omar Farouk exactly this! I learned this lesson the expensive way too. Some places call it a convenience "fee but" there s'nothing convenient about paying MORE to wait LONGER for your own money 🙄 definitely filing early and paying upfront next year
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Mei Chen
This is super helpful info! I had no idea about the refund transfer process. I always wondered why some people got their refunds so much faster than others even when filing around the same time. Definitely going to pay upfront next year to avoid the extra delays. Thanks for sharing this!
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Giovanni Rossi
•Same here! This whole thread has been so eye-opening. I've been using the "pay from refund" option for years thinking it was just convenient, but now I realize I've been unnecessarily delaying my own money. Definitely switching to paying upfront - seems like such an obvious choice when you understand what's actually happening behind the scenes.
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Liam Fitzgerald
This is such valuable information that more people need to know! I've been doing my taxes for years and nobody ever explained the difference between these payment options clearly. The whole "refund transfer" system seems like a way to make extra money off people who don't understand the process. It's basically paying for the privilege of waiting longer for your own refund. I wish tax preparers were more transparent about this upfront instead of just presenting it as a "convenience" option.
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