Payments via PayPal, Venmo and Zelle

[Kev Williams]

So, back on topic a bit

Last month we bought a '13 Escalade, and not wanting to mail, or drive to my CU to make a payment, I thought I'd give in and try Zelle... Their ad stated something TTEO "great way to send or receive up to $2500 at a time" among other things. So I entered my info, no problem. Searched if my CU was on their user list, YES. So I start a page, say I want to pay the CU, I enter the payment I want to make, $2500, hit enter, and---
EXHCXSCSHSXSHSSXXXS <think loud 'you lose' buzzer noise...

I only have $1000 left 'today' to send... uhh, what happened to $2500? So I change to $1000...
EXHCXSCSHSXSHSSXXXS .... Nope, you can't send yourself money!

uhh, what?? I really don't know why this happened other than in the 'nickname' of the payee I put "Kevin Williams Payment"...

So in the end, what happened is precisely and exactly what I expected to happen... FAIL...


I deleted the CU payee, and my new account, all of 10 minutes old, and I'll never get those 10 minutes back...

[Bill Dufour]

Completed my taxes with turbo tax the other day. They owe me a refund both state and federal. TT wants me to sign up for some unknown payment system. They do not seem to do direct deposit into my bank account. It has to go through this greenfrog or some such name. I gave up and told them to mail me a check.
No way i am going to give that info to some unknown third party. I am fairly sure it was not a scam site but who knows. Why take the risk.
Bill D

[Jim Becker]

The IRS will direct deposit for sure and TT filing for Federal is free. I've not been in the situation with the Commonwealth of PA since there is usually a few bucks owed there but I suspect the same may be true there, but I also mail state returns because I'm not going to pay to submit them electronically.

[Lee DeRaud]

Completed my taxes with turbo tax the other day. They owe me a refund both state and federal. TT wants me to sign up for some unknown payment system. They do not seem to do direct deposit into my bank account. It has to go through this greenfrog or some such name. I gave up and told them to mail me a check.
No way i am going to give that info to some unknown third party. I am fairly sure it was not a scam site but who knows. Why take the risk.
Bill D

Depending on the version of TT, there's a fee for the state filing ($15, maybe $20). They have an option of taking that fee from your refund, but that obviously involves the refund passing through them or some 3rd-party/affiliate. Could that be what was happening? Option B is paying Intuit the fee directly, but IIRC Paypal was one of the options to do that.

(As Jim said, I can't imagine a state not being able to refund directly to your account.)

[Curt Harms]

Brian, there are two main problem levels with the new Regs. First is the new and HUGE burden being placed on PayPal and Venmo and their lack of software, employees, structure, etc. to deal with the reporting requirements and do it correctly. Then, the IRS will get millions of 1099Ks on top of the millions they already get and, likewise, will not have the resources with which to deal with them correctly. With all the possibilities for human error, it would be hard to assume that this will all work as conceived.

You know they're trying to hire 87,000 new agents. A business I'm familiar with already set aside office space for IRS use, they get 'visits' that often. I'm sure some businesses get watched more closely than others because of potential for abuse - or maybe because nobody can figure out just what in heaven's name some tortuous rule really means.

[Keegan Shields]

That's great news in my opinion. When people and businesses cheat on their taxes, the people who are honest pick up the tab. And I say that as a business owner.