The following info is for those taxpayers who filed a tax return for the 2019 tax year that utilized a Republic Bank “Refund Transfer” to process their refund. Just as a reminder, a “Refund Transfer” is a bank product that allows a taxpayer to have their tax prep fees taken out of their refund. If you used this refund disbursement method then this post will provide some clarification as to why some taxpayers have not yet received their 2nd stimulus payments.

Due to an error, the IRS attempted to deposit the 2nd stimulus payment to a closed account at Republic Bank. The Republic Bank account used to process 2019 refund payments was a temporary account which is closed at the end of the year in preparation for the upcoming 2020 / 2021 tax season. Republic Bank has indicated that the erroneous payments have been returned to the IRS. The IRS will then re-issue the stimulus payment in the form of either a check or a debit card which will be mailed to the taxpayer at the address that was reported on their 2019 tax return.

Please note that while TaxSmart USA uses only Republic Bank for Refund Transfers and other bank products, this situation more than likely occurred with other banks that typically offer Refund Transfers or other types of bank products. These banks include Santa Barbara Tax Products Group and EPS Financial. You should contact your tax preparer if you used the bank products offered by these other 2 banks for further information.

Taxpayers can call Republic Bank at (866) 581-1040 or check the IRS website: www.irs.gov/eip to get more information on the current status of their $600 stimulus payment.