Your Tax Refund

[dynalow]

........on a VISA debit card, courtesy of the US Treasury.

Other than trying to lasso in peolpe who don't have bank accounts and saving taxpayer's check cashing fees, I'm not so sure about this.....

Another govt. toe in the waters of commercial banking? Seems that way to me. Today's toe is tomorrows body.
Today's payment or filing options become tomorrow's mandates. Refunds by paper checks are on the way out. My guess? 5 years. Tops.



Department news release: Pilot program: Prepaid debit and payroll cards: Tax refunds


Treasury Launches Pilot Program of Prepaid Debit and Payroll Cards for Fast, Safe and Convenient Tax Refunds
1/13/2011

WASHINGTON - Timed for tax season, the U.S. Department of the Treasury launched a pilot today to offer taxpayers a safe, convenient and low-cost financial account for the electronic delivery of their federal tax refunds. The new account card option provides everyday money-saving conveniences and consumer protection features for Americans with limited or no access to traditional banking services.

“This pilot program will provide low- and moderate-income Americans with a low-cost option for faster delivery of their federal tax refund,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin. “This innovative card can be used for everyday financial transactions, such as receiving wages by direct deposit, withdrawing cash, making purchases, paying bills and building savings safely and conveniently, giving users more control over their financial futures.”

As the next step in this pilot, originally announced in September, Treasury will mail letters next week to 600,000 low- and moderate-income individuals nationwide. The letters will invite these taxpayers to consider activating a MyAccountCard Visa® Prepaid Debit Card in time to have their 2010 federal tax refund direct deposited to the card. Compared to paper checks, direct deposit provides a safer, faster and more convenient way to receive a federal tax refund as well as other regular income.

Also this week, Treasury began a companion pilot to encourage tens of thousands of current and potential payroll card users to direct deposit their 2010 federal tax refund onto existing payroll cards. Nationwide, more than 1.7 million workers use payroll cards to receive and access their wages, often because they do not have bank accounts. Working with ADP, a provider of payroll services, Treasury will highlight the safety, ease and convenience of direct deposit onto payroll cards through tax season communications, including materials distributed with pay statements.

The letters mailed to taxpayers about MyAccountCard contain information about the card's features, including free services and the fee structure for optional services. Many of the features, including free point-of-sale transactions, free online bill pay, free ATM cash withdrawals at more than 15,000 ATM machines nationwide, and free cash back at participating retail stores, will help cardholders limit the costs of using the card. The information also explains how to sign up, and how to use the card to receive a federal tax refund and conduct everyday financial transactions.

As part of the pilot, Treasury will randomly offer several different variations of MyAccountCard in order to evaluate which product features, fee structures and marketing messages generate the greatest positive response from taxpayers. The results of the pilot will help determine the benefits and feasibility of a card account as an integrated part of the tax filing and refund process.

The Visa ® branded MyAccountCard will be issued by Bonneville Bank, acting as Treasury's financial agent and pursuant to a license from Visa® U.S.A. Inc., with additional services provided by Bonneville Bank through its program manager, Green Dot® Corporation, a prepaid financial services company. Bonneville Bank, Visa® and Green Dot® will offer MyAccountCard cardholders a wide variety of card features, reliable customer service support by telephone and Internet, and a large nationwide reload network.

The tax-time pilots build on the Obama Administration's continuing efforts to increase electronic payments and to empower Americans to make informed financial decisions. For example, those who receive Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other types of federal benefits already have the choice to get their payments through the Direct Express® Debit MasterCard® card, which was designed for federal benefit recipients and is recommended by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

More information about MyAccountCard can be found at www.myaccountcard.gov .

Not a bad idea, many low income folks have trouble getting a check cashed without paying a fee. Many companies use those debit cards, the last couple of phones I bought included a "rebate" that was sent via debit card. My daughter's collage issues them to process any tuition refunds. As long as the DOT is simply contracting VISA to provide the cards, I don't see a problem.

[Pavka007]

This is just great
Till now the government needed at least a court order to be able officially to look at your bank details (for whatever reason they claim) now one step closer to a TOTAL POLICE country. Not only they will give your tax return there but they offer: "building savings safely and conveniently, giving users more control over their financial futures.”

Yes....thank you.
from what I remember living in Russia for few years in the 90's the people were controled by the state YES, but the people were looked after BY THE State.

Bottom line....looks like they are better than us here

Originally Posted by Pavka007

This is just great
Till now the government needed at least a court order to be able officially to look at your bank details (for whatever reason they claim) now one step closer to a TOTAL POLICE country. Not only they will give your tax return there but they offer: "building savings safely and conveniently, giving users more control over their financial futures.”

Yes....thank you.
from what I remember living in Russia for few years in the 90's the people were controled by the state YES, but the people were looked after BY THE State.

Bottom line....looks like they are better than us here

What are you talking about?

Read the article, they are simply talking about issuing a pre-paid debit card instead of a check.

[dynalow]

I see it as a little more than that...or perhaps leading to more than that..
But you know me. I'm a skeptic.

[PaulC]

Ah, but with the IRS refund debit card, the government can track the purchases you make with the card and learn..........not a whole Hell of a lot, really...

It appears that the only risk is that people who receive these will end up buying additional services from the company that is issuing the cards. These pre-paid cards do usually have high fees compared to "real" debit cards that are associated with a bank account.

Originally Posted by PaulC

Ah, but with the IRS refund debit card, the government can track the purchases you make with the card and learn..........not a whole Hell of a lot, really...

It sounds like they are being managed by a third party bank. The government could probably access all my debit card transactions too, but I don't know why they would care.

[QS23]

If people are really nervous of the govt being able to track their purchases, you could just goto an atm or whatever bank is backing these cards, and withdraw the whole amount. That's what I did when I got one of those cards back for a rebate on my phone.

Originally Posted by QS23

If people are really nervous of the govt being able to track their purchases, you could just goto an atm or whatever bank is backing these cards, and withdraw the whole amount. That's what I did when I got one of those cards back for a rebate on my phone.

I try to use them all at once on a big purchase so I don't have to keep track of the balance remaining. I have a $100 card in my wallet at the moment, I need to remember to use it when I buy something over $100.

[retmil46]

Yep, and it gives the banks and credit card companies the chance to make more money by charging fees for using those cards.

Few years back, I remember a story about one state having a similar pilot program, using debit cards to pay out unemployment benefits. There was something of a stink raised when people discovered that every time they used the card for a transaction, they were being charged a "useage fee" for every transaction.

Call me old-fashioned, but I don't like the idea of there not being some type of hard-copy paper trail somewhere along the line, at least to CMA and prove my case, in case the government, state, bank, credit card company, etc, screws up and then tries to screw me.

It also strikes me that if no one is using cash and it's all electronic, it's much easier to keep people in line and under control, when all it takes is a few keystrokes on a computer to deactivate your debit card and deny you access to any of your funds, or the IRS just might suddenly decide you're in arrears on your taxes and clean out your entire bank account in a matter of seconds. I know, that sounds like "conspiracy theory", but does strike me as a long-shot possibility.

[my83300cd]

Its a convient way to get people to spend all of their refund rather than saving it. The IRS is just trying to help out our consumer based economy.

[Pavka007]

Originally Posted by Craig

What are you talking about?

Read the article, they are simply talking about issuing a pre-paid debit card instead of a check.

Craig, I've read the article, thank you.
However I still think that this is ONE more form of "Big Brother" watching you. It is not enough that the banks keep an eye on what and how you are using your money, not the Federal Gov would like to be able to do this with no requirements of court order. Can you not see the big picture?

Originally Posted by retmil46

Call me old-fashioned, but I don't like the idea of there not being some type of hard-copy paper trail somewhere along the line, at least to CMA and prove my case, in case the government, state, bank, credit card company, etc, screws up and then tries to screw me.

Is this any different than any other debit or credit card? there is nothing stopping the recipient from withdrawing all the cash from the card immediately, or taking it to the bank and depositing it into their account. I just don't see how this is any different from those paper checks my grandparents used.

[Dee8go]

Well, that all makes sense, considering the gubmint now owns huge chunks of stock in the major banks since the TARP bailout . . . . I guess they're just looking after their investments.