IRS Owes $20 Million In Refunds To Floridians
FT. LAUDERDALE(CBS4) - Uncle Sam may owe you a few bucks.
The Internal Revenue Service said more than eleven thousand Floridians are due refund checks worth nearly $20 million, mostly from the 2009 tax year. The checks were returned to the IRS due to mailing address errors.
"In Florida, the average undelivered refund is $1747", said Mike Dobzinski with the IRS in Ft. Lauderdale. "Last year, the average was $1,538. We'd like to get this money back to taxpayers as quickly as possible. All we need is an updated address and we can reissue the check."
To find out if you are owed any money, go to the IRS' website, www.irs.gov, and click on "Where's My Refund." You'll have to have the following information handy; your Social Security number and the filing status and refund amount from your 2009 return.
Nationwide, 111,893 refunds totaling $164.6 million were returned to the IRS. Undelivered refund checks average $1,471 this year, compared to $1,148 last year.
Dobzinski said refund checks go astray for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's a life change, like a marriage or divorce, which brings about an address change. Or if the taxpayer moves and does not notify the IRS or the U.S. Postal Service, a check sent to their last known address is returned to the IRS.
Dobzinski said taxpayers can avoid undelivered tax refunds by choosing to have their refunds deposited directly into a bank account. It's available for both paper and e-filed returns.
