PSA: How refund deposit timing works when paying tax prep fees from refund vs filing for free
Just want to let everyone know about refund timing when you choose to pay tax prep fees from your refund. When you see a deposit date, your money goes to your tax preparer's bank first so they can take their fees, then they send the rest to your account. This can add a few extra days. If you filed for free or paid fees upfront, the IRS sends refund directly to you which is usually faster.
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Isabella Santos
This is accurate. The process is called a Refund Transfer (RT) or Refund Anticipation Check (RAC). When fees are deducted from refund, it goes through a temporary bank account set up by the tax prep company. Direct deposits without RT typically process 1-3 days faster.
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Ravi Sharma
•learned this the hard way last year 😤 paid like $40 extra just to have my refund delayed
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Freya Larsen
•does anyone know if turbotax does this too? or just the in person places?
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Isabella Santos
•Yes, TurboTax and most online services do this if you opt to pay fees from refund. Its standard practice
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Omar Hassan
Hey guys instead of guessing about deposit timing, I started using taxr.ai to analyze my transcript. For $1 it tells you exactly when to expect your deposit and any potential delays. Way better than trying to piece together timing from random posts https://taxr.ai
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Chloe Taylor
•Does it actually work? Sounds too good to be true tbh
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Omar Hassan
•100% works! Used it for both my 2022 and 2023 returns. It even caught a potential delay before it happened and told me exactly what to do 💯
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ShadowHunter
im so confused rn...my wmr shows deposit date but nothing in my account yet. h&r block better not be playing with my money 🤡
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Diego Ramirez
•Same boat! Been waiting since Tuesday 😫
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Anastasia Sokolov
This is why I always file with freetaxusa and pay fees upfront. No middleman = faster money
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Sean O'Connor
yall really out here paying fees when there's free filing options smh
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Zara Ahmed
•not everyone's taxes are simple enough for free filing bestie 💅
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Luca Conti
wish i knew this before i filed... now im stuck refreshing my bank account every 5 mins lmaooo
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Nia Johnson
•mood 😠the waiting game is brutal
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Aurora St.Pierre
Thanks for sharing this! I had no idea about the extra delay when paying fees from refund. Makes total sense though - the money has to make an extra stop. Definitely keeping this in mind for next year's filing strategy.
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