Issue with metro tax preparation company leaves customers looking for stimulus checks

Channel 2 Action News was inundated with phone calls and messages on Wednesday when people said they weren’t getting their stimulus checks because of an issue with a metro tax preparation company.

The marketing director for ATC Income Taxes emailed Channel 2 investigative reporter Nicole Carr to say the IRS took bank account information off of old tax returns from their partner bank, which is where service fees are usually deposited.

That left many people asking, “where is my money?”

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of the owner. I haven’t gotten any callback. I’ve sent three emails,” one customer said, not identifying herself.

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“We stopped working because of coronavirus, and I haven’t even gotten my unemployment yet,” Tieia Hishida said.

The customers have all filed their taxes with ATC and they’re all looking for their stimulus money.

The IRS website is saying all that money went to ATC-affiliated bank accounts.

“But the thing is everybody had different account numbers it was deposited into. When we arrived here we asked them what was going on. He said they had no answers, but they couldn’t cut us out no check. We’ll know something within 24 hours,” another customer said.

“I think now, at this, point they’ve blocked my phone number from calling into their office,” said customer Janai Wilson.

Carr spent the day trying to contact local owners and representatives for several locations of the national franchise.

The phones weren’t working at most locations and Carr was not able to get a live person on the phone even with out of state locations.

But when she dialed a Marietta number for ATC late Wednesday afternoon, she got the following message:

“Here’s an update on the stimulus package for 2020. Stimulus payments have started to be deposited by the IRS. Most payments will be directly deposited to your bank account. The IRS sent some payments in error to our bank partners-Refund Advantage. Those payments were sent back to the IRS as MetaBank is not legally authorized to process stimulus checks.”

“It’s terrible. It’s disheartening. It’s frustrating. I have rent that is already late. I have other bills that are already late,” Wilson said.

ATC told Carr late Wednesday afternoon that their bank did a reverse ACH and sent the money back to the IRS who should reissue checks to those customers. But there’s no timeline on this and the state revenue department said any complaints would be sent back to the IRS.

Clark Howard's advice for how to spend your stimulus check Channel 2 consumer adviser Clark Howard says it's important to be very thoughtful about which bills you pay first.

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