Does the IRS Owe You Money?

Sherman Oaks, California – As taxpayers rush to file last-minute returns by tonight's midnight deadline, Congressman Brad Sherman (CPA, former head of the second largest tax agency in the country and Co-Chair of the bipartisan, bicameral CPA Congressional Caucus) is helping Californians uncover over $405 million in old refunds that are just waiting to be delivered to up to 412,000 Californians.

Last year, the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) could not locate thousands of taxpayers due refunds – refunds which remain undelivered. In Los Angeles County, those taxpayer refunds average almost $1,000.

"Tax refunds belong in your pocket, not stowed in a cob-webbed corner of a dark safe at the IRS," said Sherman. "If there is any chance you have an unclaimed refund, check our website to see how you can recover it."

If a taxpayer moves after filing his or her tax return and doesn't leave a forwarding address, the Postal Service returns the check to the IRS. If a person changes his or her name, perhaps after marriage, and doesn't notify the Social Security Administration of the name change, then their Social Security number will not properly match in IRS computers. This can slow or prevent the transfer of old refund checks to them. And, in the case of deceased taxpayers, some families and executors of estates may not know that they had an unclaimed refund.

Unclaimed Refunds

The paragraphs above focus on "undelivered refunds" – taxpayers who filed their returns but never received their refund. A second category is "unclaimed refunds" – people who never filed their tax returns but would get a refund if they did. For folks who have not filed, the law allows a three-year window for claiming a return before that money becomes the property of the US Treasury.

Refunds totaling almost $1.5 billion may be waiting for Americans who did not file a federal income tax return for 2018 and still have an opportunity to file. Americans gave up $7.4 billion in unclaimed refunds from 2012 through 2017. Many people do not file returns because they have too little income to require filing a tax return, even though they have income and /or social security taxes withheld from their wages. However, many of these people are due significant refunds.

Many low-and-moderate income workers qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which can be worth up to $6,728. So even if you had zero federal income tax withheld from your paycheck, you may be entitled to a refund.

"I encourage all eligible workers to file a return," said Sherman. "This is your money, and you should take advantage of it."

How to Get Your Refund

For more information about how to claim an undelivered or unclaimed tax refund, visit Congressman Sherman's website at: BradSherman.house.gov/TaxRefund

Sherman is a Certified Public Accountant. Before he was elected to Congress in 1996, Sherman was chairman of the California State Board of Equalization; the nation's second largest tax agency.

*The dollar amounts in this press release are estimated based on the most recent data available from the IRS

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