Boone County Holds Millions in Unclaimed IRS Money
Boone county, Missouri has a pretty large volume of unclaimed IRS money and a very high average refund amount of $814. The unclaimed IRS money for Boone county is about $36,633. An IRS spokesman said checks are returned to them all the time because of a life change such as a marriage or divorce. The IRS is looking for 1,285 taxpayers in Missouri to for refunds. This refund amount totals to $1.3 million. The IRS said most of the money has gone unclaimed because the checks were returned by the U.S. Postal Service.
On a national level, IRS is holding almost $165 million in the form of undelivered refund checks to a total of 111,893 taxpayers. A taxpayer only needs to update his or her address once for the IRS to send out all checks due. Nationally, undelivered refund checks average $1,471 this year, compared to $1,148 last year. Some taxpayers are due more than one check.
“We want to make sure taxpayers get the money owed to them,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “If you think you are missing a refund, the sooner you update your address information, the quicker you can get your money.” If a refund check is returned to the IRS as undelivered, taxpayers can generally update their addresses with the “Where’s My Refund?” tool on IRS.gov. The tool also enables taxpayers to check the status of their refunds. A taxpayer must submit his or her Social Security number, filing status and amount of refund shown on their 2009 return. The tool will provide the status of their refund and, in some cases, instructions on how to resolve delivery problems.
According to Iowa IRS Spokesperson Christopher Miller – “While only a small percentage of checks mailed out by the IRS are returned as undelivered, taxpayers can put an end to lost, stolen or undelivered checks by choosing direct deposit when they file either paper or electronic returns”. In places like Boone county, where millions of unclaimed IRS money is lying abandoned, electronic tax filing should be encouraged, which not only speeds up the returns, but also decreases paper work and eliminates any possibility of wrong address.
