ST. LOUIS — Several Missourians recently received checks in the mail from online retailer Wayfair. But are they legitimate? 5 On Your Side's VERIFY team investigated.
Question:
Is it true tax refund checks mailed to Missourians by Wayfair are fake?
Sources:
Anne Marie Moy, spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Revenue
Jane Carpenter, head of global communications for Wayfair
Answer:
False.
The Wayfair tax refund checks mailed to Missourians are legit. The cash is yours to keep.
Background:
5 On Your Side viewer Mario Moreno received a letter from Wayfair that read, “Wayfair has reached an agreement with the Missouri state tax agency.”
The cover letter went on to say “one or more of your past purchases has qualified for a refund in local tax” and enclosed was a check.
But when Moreno searched online he found a Nextdoor post claiming the checks were part of a scam.
Moy told the 5 On Your Side VERIFY team taxpayer information for individuals and businesses are protected by law so they can’t speak specifically to this situation.
Moy did say, “Sometimes taxpayers under collect and sometimes taxpayers over collect. In both circumstances, the [Department of Revenue] helps them correct their mistakes.”
Wayfair admitted to the 5 On Your Side VERIFY team a mistake was made.
“We just want to make sure we're taking care of our customers and you know, when we recognize there was an overpayment, we wanted to get it to them and make sure that it was back in their bank accounts,” said Carpenter.
Wayfair was overcharging customers between 2019 and March 2020.
Carpenter said the company was charging Missouri consumers a use tax and a sales tax on their purchases. The state of Missouri only requires they charge a use tax. Wayfair charging a sales tax was a mistake.
Carpenter said the Missouri Department of Revenue is the one that helped the company fix it.
“We recognized that. We checked with the state and they agreed. The state then refunded the overpayment and we passed that money back to our customers,” she said.