computerwoche.de

Archiv

Intuit glitch leads to mistaken mega-tax refunds

15.03.2011
Most U.S. residents would be happy to get a few thousand dollars back from the Internal Revenue Service at tax time. But a snafu in some Intuit software recently resulted in a number of Ohio residents receiving letters indicating that eye-popping sums were en route -- in one , a cool US$200 million.

The bug befell Intuit's ProSeries and Turbo Tax software and involved the process by which taxpayers submit requests for a direct deposit of their refunds, Ohio Department of Taxation spokesman Gary Gudmundson said via e-mail.

Intuit worked with the state of Ohio to resolve the problem, spokeswoman Julie Miller said via e-mail Tuesday.

An incorrectly formatted data field in the TurboTax product "affected a small number of customers -- only those returns filed with TurboTax between Jan. 21-24, 2011 and which indicated direct deposit," she wrote. "We immediately fixed the error so no additional filers were affected."

The glitch "in no way affects the accuracy of the customer's return or their true refund amount," Miller added. "We regret any inconvenience this may have caused our customers."

The Sandusky Register newspaper in Ohio reported last week that 9,700 customers received letters "promising grossly inflated refunds." Ohio officials could not immediately confirm that figure.