What should I do about a tax refund error made by a national tax preparation company?
"Get your refund quickly" the company promised but they left out one number and the check was returned to the IRS. I called the company and was told it was a banking error. Since I signed the paper the only thing they can do is give me the IRS phone number. My response~ I gave the correct number ~ it was not a banking error and I trusted the company to submit the correct information. Do you think they owe me anything? like a tax prep refund?Since it is a national company, who can I contact?
Public Comments
- I'm assuming that you opted to have your refund deposited to your bank account and they fat-fingered your account number, correct? When this happens the bank will reject the ACH deposit and return it to the IRS. The IRS will then cut a paper check and mail it directly to you in a few weeks. You'll get your refund. You have no recourse against the tax preparer as YOU were supposed to review the return before it was transmitted to the IRS. If you didn't catch the error then it's your fault that it was mis-filed. The taxpayer alone is SOLELY responsible for what's on their tax return. The tax preparer owes you nothing as you WILL receive your full refund, just not as quickly as you may have wanted to. Edit: If they offer a money-back accuracy guarantee you might have a claim under that guarantee but they have no legal obligation to you outside of any guarantee offered.
- All the national tax prep companies have call centers to handle customer complaints.
- No, they don't owe you anything. It was your responsibility to verify the account number on your copy of the return to be sure it was correct. When I do someone's return and they do direct deposit, I always have them verify the account number against their checkbook when we are going over the copy of their return at the end, just to avoid issues like this.
- Contact the office manager on where you got your taxes. Most office managers will gladly do something for you but I doubt you will get your full tax prep fee refunded, maybe some of it but not all of it
