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A to Z Challenge: E-Gift Card
Apr. 6th, 2015 12:46 pmI like to do my taxes by hand. Then, to double-check myself and submit the forms, I do them for real using Robin's Turbo-Tax when he's done.
This time there were no surprises until the end when I got the opportunity to receive some of my refund as an e-gift card to Amazon for an amount that was 10% more than the amount I designated. For example, if I chose to receive $200 of my refund as a gift card, I would get a $220 gift card instead.
I googled this and found the Finance Gourmet's Amazon and TurboTax Refund Special post, where I learned a few interesting things.
1) This option is only available if you bought Turbotax from Intuit directly or from Amazon. We bought ours from our local office supply place, but the Basic no longer did all the things it used to do, so Intuit ended up sending us a more deluxe version.
2) The extra money comes from Intuit, not Amazon.
Since I do actually buy things from Amazon, this was interesting. It changes the game a bit. Normally you should make it so that your refund is minimal so that your money is working for you. But can you get your money to work for you better than an instant guaranteed 10% increase? I can't.
The next question is how much? As the author points out, if you don't normally buy much from Amazon, it doesn't make sense to get much of your refund as an Amazon gift card. Of course the gift cards never expire, and Amazon is unlikely to go out of business any time soon, but the longer before you spend the money, the less exciting the instant 10% is.
Will they do this again next year? They caught some flack for making certain kinds of tax situations much more expensive than in the past though they made some situations cheaper. This bonus may have been created to encourage customers to happily pay the extra price if they have complex taxes.
Finally, if they do this again next year, will I be able to tell? It's currently possible to see this feature on Intuit's website (last row)--turns out it's only 5% for the Basic and 10% for the others. And Amazon has "+ Refund Bonus Offer" in the title.
This time there were no surprises until the end when I got the opportunity to receive some of my refund as an e-gift card to Amazon for an amount that was 10% more than the amount I designated. For example, if I chose to receive $200 of my refund as a gift card, I would get a $220 gift card instead.
I googled this and found the Finance Gourmet's Amazon and TurboTax Refund Special post, where I learned a few interesting things.
1) This option is only available if you bought Turbotax from Intuit directly or from Amazon. We bought ours from our local office supply place, but the Basic no longer did all the things it used to do, so Intuit ended up sending us a more deluxe version.
2) The extra money comes from Intuit, not Amazon.
Since I do actually buy things from Amazon, this was interesting. It changes the game a bit. Normally you should make it so that your refund is minimal so that your money is working for you. But can you get your money to work for you better than an instant guaranteed 10% increase? I can't.
The next question is how much? As the author points out, if you don't normally buy much from Amazon, it doesn't make sense to get much of your refund as an Amazon gift card. Of course the gift cards never expire, and Amazon is unlikely to go out of business any time soon, but the longer before you spend the money, the less exciting the instant 10% is.
Will they do this again next year? They caught some flack for making certain kinds of tax situations much more expensive than in the past though they made some situations cheaper. This bonus may have been created to encourage customers to happily pay the extra price if they have complex taxes.
Finally, if they do this again next year, will I be able to tell? It's currently possible to see this feature on Intuit's website (last row)--turns out it's only 5% for the Basic and 10% for the others. And Amazon has "+ Refund Bonus Offer" in the title.