More tax filers wonder what happened to their stimulus checks

CHARLOTTE — Brian Joyce used eSmart Tax by Liberty Tax to file, and he was still waiting for his stimulus money Thursday.

“We could really use it right now, as everybody else could. And I know I’m not the only one that’s dealing with this,” he told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke.

Liberty Tax CEO Brent Turner posted a video on the company’s website, which said, “Liberty Tax had not a cent of fault all in the processing errors of these payments.”

[H&R Block, TurboTax customers report issues getting second stimulus checks]

In fact, no tax preparers did or the banks they use.

The preparers set up temporary bank accounts to give customers’ tax refunds up front. The IRS sent money to those accounts instead of ones that belong to customers. That also happened during the first round of stimulus checks.

“A lot of our customers are suffering from the same thing that happened last time,” said Kevin Burton, owner of CentraTAX. “We’re bombarded with calls and you know this is the start of our tax year, so those calls, mingled with our regular tax calls, it’s sort of overwhelming.”

Many tax preparers use one of two banks: MetaBank or Republic Bank.

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Burton said MetaBank is returning the money to the IRS, and the tax agency will resend it to the customers.

Stoogenke is asking MetaBank for more information but didn’t hear back from it in time for this report.

Republic said it’s giving the money back to the IRS.

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The IRS should get it to the right accounts “no later than Feb. 1.”

Liberty Tax and Jackson Hewitt said the same thing.

H&R Block, TurboTax customers experience issues receiving second stimulus checks

Cox Media Group