Santa Barbara Tax Products Group SBTPG Green Dot Corporation They collected my tax refund from the IRS to take their fees and did not deposit my remaining refund into my account. La Jolla CA

I used Tax Slayer to prepare my 2022 taxes. Tax Slayer uses Santa Barbara Tax Products Group when you choose to have their fees deducted rom your refund. SBTPG is a subsidiary of Green Dot Corporation and they us Civista bank to hold the customer's refunds. 

My tax refund was approved by the IRS and sent to me on 8/9/23. Because I chose to have the fees come out of it, it went yo SBTPG 1st on 8/8/23, they were then supposed to deposit the rest of my refund to my bank account. AS of today 8/16/23 they are still holding my refund in Civista bank and are now saying that the IRS has requested they return it to them.  This information is completely false and fabricated. The IRS does not request this of the tax payer or specifically a 3rd party once the refund has been approved and sent.

I spoke with the IRS and they have not done this, they did not request this of SBTPG or anyone. Now SBTPG will not release my money and say they are returning it to the IRS and they charged me another fee to return it. So now I will not get my refund for weeks and they will have gotten paid for doing nothing and gotten extra money for ripping me off.

They do not answer their customer service line, they do not notify you of what they are doing by phone, email or mail ahead of time. This company is running a scam and this is happening to hundreds of people.