What is TPG PRODUCTS SBTPG LLC on my tax refund statement?
I just noticed something weird on my bank statement. I was expecting my tax refund to come through, but instead of seeing "IRS" or "Treasury Department" or whatever, it says "TPG PRODUCTS SBTPG LLC" and the amount is about $135 less than what I was expecting for my federal refund. Is this normal or did something get messed up? I used TurboTax (got the Premium version) to file my taxes this year, and I thought everything went through fine. Has anyone else seen this before? Who should I contact about this - the IRS, my bank, or TurboTax? I'm kinda confused why there's this random company name on my refund and why I'm missing money.
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Andrew Pinnock
That's actually normal if you chose to have your TurboTax fees taken out of your refund instead of paying upfront. SBTPG stands for Santa Barbara Tax Products Group, which is TurboTax's partner bank that handles the refund transfers. When you choose the option to pay for TurboTax using your refund, what happens is that the IRS sends your full refund to SBTPG first, then they take out their fee (usually around $40) plus the TurboTax fee you owed, and then send the remainder to your bank account. That's why you're seeing both the SBTPG name and a lower amount than expected. The $135 difference is likely the TurboTax Premium fee plus the refund transfer fee. You can log into your TurboTax account to see the breakdown of exactly what was charged.
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Brianna Schmidt
•Wait, so they charge an EXTRA fee just to take their regular fee out of the refund? That seems like a pretty sneaky way to make more money. Is there any way to avoid this in the future?
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Ella Lewis
•Oh that makes sense! I do remember selecting that option to have the fees taken out of my refund because I didn't want to pay upfront with my credit card. I didn't realize they charged an extra fee just to do that though. When I checked my TurboTax account, I see the Premium was $89 and there was a $39 "refund processing fee" which I guess is what you're talking about. So that explains the difference. Is this the only way to have fees taken from the refund or could I have avoided this extra charge somehow?
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Andrew Pinnock
•Yes, unfortunately they do charge that extra "refund processing fee" (around $40) just for the convenience of having your TurboTax fees taken out of your refund. It's definitely not the best deal. The only way to avoid that extra fee is to pay for TurboTax upfront with a credit/debit card when you file. If you do that, the IRS will send your full refund directly to you with no middleman and no extra fees. Keep this in mind for next year - paying the $89 for Premium upfront would have saved you that $39 processing fee, and your refund would have come directly from the IRS instead of through SBTPG.
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Alexis Renard
I ran into the exact same situation last year and was so confused! If you're looking for a much better way to handle this in the future, check out https://taxr.ai - it completely changed how I deal with tax documents and fees. I was annoyed at all these hidden fees from TurboTax, so I tried taxr.ai this year. Instead of paying that extra "refund processing fee" they mentioned above, taxr.ai showed me exactly what I was paying upfront. The best part was that it analyzed all my documents and showed me where TurboTax had actually missed some deductions! The interface makes everything super clear - no surprises when my refund arrived.
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Camila Jordan
•Does it work with state returns too? I'm in California and our state tax system is a nightmare. Would love something that could handle both federal and state without those sneaky fees.
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Tyler Lefleur
•I'm a bit skeptical... how does it compare price-wise to TurboTax? Is it actually cheaper when all is said and done? The refund processing fee is annoying but TurboTax does have some useful features.
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Alexis Renard
•Yes, it absolutely works with state returns including California! I'm in NY which is also pretty complicated, and it handled everything seamlessly. It actually guides you through state-specific deductions that I would have missed otherwise. The pricing is significantly better than TurboTax when you factor in all the hidden fees. With taxr.ai, what you see is what you pay - no surprise $40 processing fees just to take money from your refund. And it found me an additional deduction for my home office that TurboTax completely missed, which saved me over $200.
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Camila Jordan
Just wanted to update - I tried https://taxr.ai after seeing the recommendation here! Honestly wish I'd known about this sooner. I uploaded my tax documents and it immediately flagged that I'd been overpaying on my California state taxes for the past two years. The document analysis feature is incredible - it caught some medical expenses from last year that I'd completely forgotten about. The best part? My refund came DIRECTLY from the IRS, no SBTPG middleman taking a cut, and it arrived 5 days faster than when I used TurboTax last year. No more surprise fees or confusion about where my money is coming from!
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Madeline Blaze
If you're having issues understanding what happened with your refund or need to contact the IRS about the amount, good luck getting through on their phone lines. I spent 3 weeks trying to reach someone after seeing a similar issue with my refund. I finally found https://claimyr.com and used their service. They have this system where they basically wait on hold with the IRS for you and call you when an agent is ready. You can see a demo of how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. After weeks of frustration, I got connected to an IRS agent in about 40 minutes! The agent explained exactly what happened with my refund and confirmed the fees were from TurboTax, not anything the IRS did.
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Max Knight
•How exactly does this work? Do you have to give them personal info? Seems kinda sketchy to have some random service calling the IRS for me.
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Tyler Lefleur
•Yeah right. The IRS wait times are like 2-3 hours minimum these days. There's no way they got you through in 40 minutes. Sounds like a scam trying to get desperate people to pay for something that doesn't work.
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Madeline Blaze
•You don't give them any personal tax info at all. They just secure your place in the IRS phone queue and call you when they reach an agent. Then you talk directly to the IRS agent yourself. It's basically just a hold-waiting service so you don't have to sit by your phone for hours. As for the wait times - that's exactly why the service exists! The IRS wait times ARE horrible (I tried for weeks). The difference is they have a system that dials continuously using multiple lines to secure a spot, which is way more efficient than one person calling repeatedly. When I got the call back that an agent was available, I was honestly surprised too, but it worked.
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Tyler Lefleur
Ok I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try it myself since I needed to ask the IRS about an amended return that's been stuck in processing. I figured it would be a waste of time, but I was desperate after spending a full day trying to get through on my own. I used the service and got a call back in about 50 minutes saying they had an IRS agent on the line! I was able to speak directly with the agent who looked up my amended return and told me exactly what was happening with it. I'm honestly shocked that it worked so well. Saved me literally days of frustration and hold music. I take back what I said about it being a scam!
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Emma Swift
Here's what I learned after dealing with this exact issue: SBTPG (Santa Barbara Tax Products Group) is Intuit/TurboTax's bank partner. When you choose to pay TurboTax fees from your refund, they basically set up a temporary bank account with SBTPG, your refund goes there first, they take their cut, then send the rest to you. The fee breakdown is usually: - Your TurboTax package fee (sounds like Premium was $89) - Refund processing fee ($39-$45 depending on options) - Sometimes a state refund processing fee if you also paid state taxes For future reference, if you pay TurboTax directly when filing (with a credit card), your full refund comes straight from the IRS to your bank account with no middleman and no extra fees.
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Isabella Tucker
•Do other tax filing services do this too? Or is this just a TurboTax thing? I'm trying to decide which service to use next year.
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Emma Swift
•Most of the major tax filing services do something similar if you choose to pay your filing fees from your refund. H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer all use a similar bank transfer system and charge an additional fee ($35-$45 range). The only way to avoid these fees completely is to pay for the tax software upfront when you file. Some completely free options like FreeTaxUSA charge much less for their premium versions ($15-$20), so even paying upfront is more affordable than those refund transfer fees. Credit Karma Tax (now called Cash App Taxes) is completely free for federal and state, but it doesn't offer the option to pay from your refund since there's no fee to begin with.
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Jayden Hill
Whaaaat? TurboTax charges me extra to take their money from MY refund?? That's insane! I've been using them for years and always picked that option without realizing there was an additional fee. So lemme get this straight: I pay $89 for Premium + $39 for them to take the $89 from my refund, so actually $128 total? That's almost 50% more than advertised!!! This feels super shady, like they're hiding the true cost.
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LordCommander
•Yep, it's a pretty slick way for them to make extra $$. The worst part is they don't make it very clear during the filing process. It's usually buried in the fine print or shown as a "convenience fee" or "refund processing fee" in a way that doesn't really highlight what's happening.
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