E-refund speed

[Snaggletooth]

I've been told by locals in the tax prep business that IRS is cutting down its turnaround time on refunds that are electronically filed. I've been telling my customers to look for theirs in around 11 days, but I noticed last year some of them were getting their money back in 8-9 days.

In the course of the last several years, there have been countless discussions on the board about whether RALs are ethical or not. Most of you know my position, but I have several friends in the business that offer them, and I do not think they personify moral turpitude. I don't smoke either, but if I had a store I would probably sell cigarettes if I wanted to stay in business.

I don't necessarily want to start another moral discussion about this, but I would like to draw your attention to the purported intention of the IRS to eventually cut the turnaround time to 3 days. Obviously, there has to be some question as to whether this is even possible. The drains would have to increase to almost daily. Maybe if someone posts who is with the leviathon IRS can speak to the logistics of this, and whether this aggressive idea even has a chance.

My obvious interest is to reduce demand for RALs. My stubborn position in denying RALs has cost me customers. In particular, I've grown my business by working with families and personal referrals, and have several children of older clients. I'm losing younger members as they leave the nest, start lives of their own, and flush big bucks down the toilet just so they can leave their tax appointment with a check that they'll spend within 24 hours. I can be as smug in my principles as I care to, but the fact is I could have many more younger customers than I do.

Do any of you have information about the IRS intentions of reducing their turnaround time? And if they succeed, what will happen to RALs?

[RLymanC]

RAL's

I believe that as long as the IRS keeps giving unwed mothers that keep dropping babies thousands of dollars the RAL business will do quite well.

I had a couple that were going to get married New Years Eve, she had 2 children and $14,000 income, he had 2 children and $22,000 income. You guessed it, postponed the wedding for a day and the IRS paid for the whole thing. So much for family values.

What I would like to see is just one of the EIC crowd invest that money in the childrens future. Using hind site just think if the $3,500 EIC refund was used to purchased MicroSoft 15 years ago. That car they got is a pile of junk a long time ago.

[Joe Btfsplk]

EIC & RALs

Even if the IRS cuts the time down to three days, there are people who will spend their hard-earned EIC to get it instantly thru an RAL.
I think the IRS should make RALs illegal. If I wanted to have client refunds sent to me so I could deduct my fee, then give them the balance, I would be violating the law. Why should a bank "product" be allowed to do it? Although the risk of a bank absconding with the money is less likely than it is for a CPA to abscond, the principal is the same.

Cutting the refund time down to three days, however, would probably cause some fall-off in the number of RAL rip-offs.

Cutting out the EIC would do even more to help. Why should some of us pay taxes so others can get 'refunds' of our money when they pay no tax?

[taxmandan]

refund turnaround time

The IRS does drains twice each day during tax season. They acknowledge the return and determine any offsets in a couple of hours and let the RAL banks know if the refund will be issued. They could be depositing refunds within 2-4 hours, but I suspect the Treasury Dept. has to OK the disbursement of money and is the likely reason for the once a week process. Too bad, that would get rid of the RALs which the IRS hates as much as some here.