Last Updated On: 1/26/2011 6:36:18 PM
ATLANTA -- For four days the Georgia Department of Revenue had no idea that taxpayers actually had their refund money taken out of their accounts.
"We thought we had stopped payment before any money had made it into individual accounts," said Douglas MacGinnitie, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Revenue.
What a shocker when the commissioner, in the job only a week, discovered that because of an overpayment of $633,000, roughly 32,000 taxpayers lost their deposits with the click of a computer button. The funds taken back totalled $12 million.
"In the refund process, the calculation was apparently changed somewhat, and it was not picked up by the computers," said Gov. Nathan Deal.
It wasn't before thousands of taxpayers had used the money over the weekend to pay bills.
Now the big question -- who pays the bank fees and charges when all the bad checks roll in? Do the taxpayers have a guarantee they will not have to pay?
"We have contacted all of our bank relationships, and we've made them aware of the situation," MacGinnitie said. "We are working as quickly as we can. We are confident that at the end of the day we can put people back in the position they should have been in, which means they will not incur these fees at no cost to anybody."
That's welcome news for frustrated taxpayers who tried to call the Department for information and got put on hold or had calls disconnected.
"Clearly from my perspective we need to work to make the Department of Revenue more customer focused," MacGinnitie said. "I assume that's why the governor asked me to take this job a couple of weeks ago."
The commissioner gave no specific timeline for putting refund money back into taxpayer accounts, but he says the process started Wednesday.
Wells Fargo Bank said Wednesday night that it will refund all bank charges to customs that were caused by the Revenue Department snafu.
, I was just about to pay on some bills and I am glad I didn't, I can only imagine the 
that would have resulted from having to deal with the bank about the bank charges for being over drawn. Heres hoping they actually get the money sent out correctly soon.
