State and banking officials said Georgia taxpayers should be reimbursed if they were hit with overdraft fees caused by the Department of Revenue’s decision to rescind thousands of tax refunds.
Some area banks say they automatically will waive the fees, and a state spokesman said the department will work to rectify other cases.
“They’ll get it back either way,” said Reg Lansberry, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Revenue.
Revenue officials said the department on Thursday started depositing $12 million in income tax refunds in about 32,000 accounts, but recalled the funds a few hours later when errors were discovered in some of the transfers.
Some taxpayers quoted in media reports from around the state have said their overdraft fees totaled as much as $500.
Lansberry said the department has a fee reimbursement form available on its website — www.dor.ga.gov — and will work with taxpayers to be sure the overdraft fees are handled.
Refunds were scheduled to start going out Wednesday night and will continue for seven days, he said.
Lansberry said many banks have pledged to forgive the fees, but said the department had not decided how to cover reimbursement requests if the banks wouldn’t cover the fees.
“We’re still sorting through those answers,” he said.
Stan Guess, communications officer for Northwest Georgia Bank, said the bank started fielding calls Monday about the refund reversal but had heard from fewer than 10 affected customers. Of those, only one had overdraft issues and the bank waived the fees, he said.
The bank waives the overdraft fees from time to time when events are out of the account holder’s control, Guess said.
“That’s the beauty of community banking,” he said.
Randall Street, group vice president with the Cohutta Banking Co., said he hadn’t heard of any complaints, but the bank will refund any overdraft fees caused by the funds reversal.
“We’ll try and work with them,” Street said. “It’s no fault of their own.”
Bill Cherry, chief financial officer at First Bank of Dalton, said one-tenth of 1 percent of his customers were affected by the department’s actions. Cherry said his bank would waive the fees on its customers rather than deal with the state.
“They did say that they would work with banks, but a smaller bank with minimal customers [affected], I’m not sure what kind of attention that would get,” he said.