Staff Photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Tami Hess, 44, looks at her original tax form showing the amount of her expected return. Now, a Georgia Department of Revenue mistake has her convinced she will be paying insufficient funds penalties to her bank.A direct-deposit debacle led Georgia revenue officials to pull back state income tax refunds a few hours after deposits were made into thousands of taxpayers' accounts.
"It actually says 'reversed' on my bank statement," said Rossville resident Tami Hess.
Hess said she saw $569 show up in her account Saturday. The transaction listed the Georgia Department of Revenue as the payer and was the correct amount listed on the tax return she filed, she said.
After paying bills Sunday and Monday, she was shocked to see her account overdrawn by $260 Monday and that the tax refund had disappeared.
On Tuesday, state officials were scrambling to research the problem.
Spokesman Reg Lansberry said the department deposited the money Thursday, but the refunds were pulled back when a mistake was identified.
"We had discovered there was a programming error, and we rescinded the deposits," he said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Rossville resident Curtis Emmett also was hit by the yo-yoing funds. When he first noticed the deposit and reversal Friday, he called his bank.
"I called bookkeeping, and they said they'd never seen anything like that before," he said.
Both Emmett and Hess said they were on hold with the state revenue office for about 45 minutes Monday.
"If I had gone out and bought a few things based on what they said was going to happen, I would be in a mess," Emmett said. "I just wonder if the state of Georgia is going to pay for all of these people's bounced checks."
Hess said she was told to send copies of her bank statements and overdraft notices to the department to see if the department could work out the fees with the bank.
Lansberry said he was working to find out how the department could work with the banks on any overdraft charges.
Melanie Butler, administrative assistant in the office of the state revenue commissioner, told a Macon television station that the problem is being fixed and the refunds should be redeposited within about a week.
"That is what we are telling customers," she confirmed, but said she was not authorized to make comments.
Hess said she was told by a revenue phone operator that thousands of Georgians had been affected. She said she was told a few deposits in a batch of thousands were incorrect, so the state recalled the funds from the entire batch.
Lansberry said it was unclear how many taxpayers were affected, but he did not dispute Hess's statement.
Roswell, Ga., resident Michael Hall said he and his wife had a $126 balance and face $230 worth of fees from the bank and the phone company, which cut off his service when the payment didn't clear.
"We saw the money, spent it, and then it disappeared," Hall said.
UPDATE: Georgia revenue department issues statement on problem refunds