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'A big headache': People prepare for delayed stimulus check payments

Relief is supposed to come in the form of stimulus checks being deposited in many bank accounts this week. Others say their funds went to the wrong account.

MACON, Ga. — On Wednesday, dozens of people gathered outside of an Augusta tax preparer's office looking for answers and their stimulus checks.

The same was happening right here in Central Georgia. 

"I filed through a tax agency, like a loan company that also does taxes," says Brandy Davis.

Davis's husband filed his taxes separately through TurboTax and he got his payment on Wednesday. She expected to get hers, too.

"Come to find out the bank they used with the taxes, they're denying all the checks and sending them back to the IRS," she says.

Davis says the only thing she's been told is she has to wait.

"It's turning out to be a big headache with no answers," she says.

Candace Brown with Brown and Associates, a Macon tax-prep service, says Davis is not alone. She says on Wednesday, about 200 to 250 people called their office asking the same question.

Brown says the best answer she could give was referring customers to an email sent by Refund Advantage, the third party bank that her office uses. The letter says all money was sent back to the IRS and people will receive paper checks instead.

"Once it's sent back, maybe once it's re-processed, the customer is able to change their mailing address if they've moved, but it will definitely be sent out. It will not be a direct deposit, it'll definitely be mailed out," says Brown.

Brown says once the bank rejects those payments, people can log into the IRS site to see the status of their check.

The U.S. Treasury says it could take months for the IRS to re-process and mail out checks to people.

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