Thursday, December 1, 2011

UNDELIVERED REFUNDS

The IRS has issued its annual notice about undelivered tax refund checks. In all, 99,123 taxpayers are due $153.3 million in refund check that could not be delivered because of mailing address errors.

The average returned refund check is $1,547 this year.

Taxpayers who believe their refund check is among the undelivered should use the “Where’s My Refund?” tool on the IRS website. The tool will provide the status of their refund and, in some cases, instructions on how to resolve delivery problems.

A telephone version of “Where’s My Refund?” is also available by calling 1-800-829-1954.

The IRS correctly advises –

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.”

I recommend direct deposit to all my 1040 clients.  By using this method taxpayers will receive their refunds at least a week earlier.

The Service also issued a timely reminder (highlight is mine) -

The public should be aware that the IRS does not contact taxpayers by e-mail to alert them of pending refunds and does not ask for personal or financial information through email.  Such messages are common phishing scams.  The agency urges taxpayers receiving such messages not to release any personal information, reply, open any attachments or click on any links to avoid malicious code that can infect their computers.”    

TTFN

1 comment:

M Berry said...

I had a friend who recently checked the "Where's my refund" page and saw that she did have a refund waiting for her! I think this is great that the IRS is making this announcement.