IRS Holding Over Two Billion in Unclaimed Refund Money

Get a nice warm feeling when your tax refund check comes in? Well, you might want to check if you got it for your 2003 taxes. Over 2 billion went unclaimed and are about to expire.

Every thought of sending the IRS a nice big thank you note in the form of a thousand dollars or so? Probably not unless you are dating an IRS agent! Well, nearly 2 million taxpayers are about to do that. Over 2 BILLION dollars in unclaimed tax refunds for 2003 are about to permanently become the property of the IRS.

How does $1,200 sound? What could you do with it this month? Heck, you could even fill up your car at the gas station a couple of times. Okay, maybe twice given the outrageous gas price increases, but the money would clearly help. Well, $1,200 is the average tax refund due to people that failed to claim theirs in 2003!

You are probably wondering how so many people could leave tax refunds at the IRS. It is often a matter of record keeping. Most of us make mistakes here and there and they add up.

1. Some taxpayers don’t file because they don’t think they made enough money.

2. If you left a salaried job and opened your own business, you can easily overpay.

3. A hot real estate market led to people buying and moving, but failing to let the IRS know where they went.

4. You got married, changed your name and forgot about taxes collected under your old name.

5. You kept bad records of tax payments and believe you paid less then you really did.

So, is there a rush to get out there and claim your tax refund? Well, yes, there is. The magic deadline is tax filing day this year. This represents the three year running period for the statute of limitations. Neither you nor the IRS can look back more than three years to fix a problem, such as this one.

I could always use an extra grand or so. How about you? A vast majority of readers should be nodding their head in the affirmative. If you are one of them, take the time to go back and check your 2003 tax records. You might just find the grand sitting there.

Article Source: http://www.articlemonk.com

Richard A. Chapo is with BusinessTaxRecovery.com - providing information on income tax.
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