Where were you on the night of April 15, 2007?

If you didn’t collect your refund for the 2006 tax year,
time is running out to claim it!



$1.3 Billion Dollars.

That’s the amount of unclaimed refund money the IRS is holding in their account. From the original filing deadline, each taxpayer has a window of just three years to claim refunds they are owed. Miss the window, and that’s it … no money.

Why is so much money sitting there?

According to the IRS, unclaimed refunds are fairly commonplace. Generally this is due to individuals simply not filing in a given year because they don’t owe taxes. But of course, by not filing, they can’t get any refund due either. In 2006 the number of individuals who decided, for some reason, not to file their taxes was over 1.4 million.

What could you do with $604?

That’s the median outstanding refund amount, according to IRS estimates. The most unclaimed refunds come from the state of California, where almost 160,000 taxpayers did not file their 2006 returns. Texas and Florida are next in line, with over 100,000 unfiled returns in each of those states.

How about an additional $30 or $60 on top of that?

Based on the number of exemptions filed on 2006 tax returns, most taxpayers received $30 or up to $60, thanks to the repealed Telephone Excise Tax Refund. For some who did not file, that money, too, is sitting in an IRS account waiting for them. The only way to get that money is to file a 2006 return.

If you didn’t file your 2006 return, you have until April 15, 2010.

If the IRS owes you a refund on your 2006 return, you only have until April 15, 2010 to claim it. Otherwise, that money goes to Uncle Sam. You might want to double-check your 2007 and 2008 returns as well (though, you have a little more time on those). To file a return for a previous year, visit www.irs.gov and download the appropriate documents from their index of forms from past years.