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States and federal agencies are holding billions of dollars in unclaimed property
and missing money. Assets are considered legally abandoned when contact
with owners is lost - typically due to an unreported address change
or the expiration of a postal forwarding order, name change after marriage or divorce, and incomplete or
illegible records. These funds are
transferred to a government trust account in a legal process known
as escheat. Here they await your claim. Last year IRS had 95,746
income tax refund checks totaling $92.2 million -- an average of
$963 per taxpayer -- undelivered and uncashed, mainly due
to unreported changes of name and/or address, and the expiration of
postal forwarding ordes.
In addition, IRS holds a number
of refund checks that were delivered but for one
reason or another went uncashed. An estimated
$500,000,000 in IRS tax refund checks go uncashed and
unpaid every year. As of late last year IRS also had
almost 300,000 undelivered tax rebate (advance
payment) checks worth $95 million.
Taxpayers
must request reissue if a tax refund check has been
lost, destroyed or voided due to the passage of time
-- US Treasury checks are generally negotiable one
year from the date of issue.
For a
search of the IRS undelivered refund database and to
obtain recovery and claims information on tax refunds
order our Special Report: IRS Tax Refund Search
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