Some taxpayers are receiving smaller refunds this year than they expected. Users of TurboTax may receive a refund from Santa Barbara Tax Products Group instead of from the IRS directly. Generally, this is happening when the taxpayers - instead of paying TurboTax by credit card - ask that the fee be deducted from their refund check. In those cases, the return is submitted to the IRS asking for the refund to be sent to TPG, instead of the taxpayer. TPG then deducts a fee, which may be substantially larger than the fee to pay TurboTax by credit card when submitting the return. Having the fee deducted from the refund may be more convenient, but it can be costly.