Happy first day of tax season! Today is the first day that you can file your federal income tax return. Most Americans have to file a tax return, but a substantial number of people still don’t have bank accounts and conduct life in cash. Walmart wants to keep people in that situation away from check-cashing stores…and keep them in Walmart with a great big wad of cash in their wallets.

The new program is called Direct2Cash, and is designed for people who have e-mail accounts but not bank accounts. How it works is that the customer visits a tax preparer that takes part in the program. When their refund has been processed, they receive a code by e-mail. They take the code to Walmart, produce ID to prove their identity, and receive their tax refund in cash, minus a fee of $7 or less.

“When you consider that fees for a refund check can sometimes be more than $70 for processing and cashing, that’s a definite savings,” Wally World says in their announcement. That’s true, but the customer still has to use a tax preparer that takes part in Walmart’s program, while most Americans with straightforward taxes don’t really need to use a tax preparer in the first place.

While the boast that using this service can save customers substantial amounts in check-cashing fees may be true, they’ll have to pay a tax preparer. People who earn less than $53,000 per year and senior citizens can get their taxes prepared for free, and the only expense remains cashing the check or having a bank account to receive an electronic deposit.

More Refund, Less Hassle with Walmart Direct2Cash [Walmart]

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