IRS May Have A Check for You

WASHINGTON - The holiday season is here and the Internal Revenue Service says it may have a gift for you -- your income tax refund check. The IRS says 55,000 taxpayers have not yet claimed their 1990 federal income tax refunds totaling more than $25 million.

All these taxpayers have to do is contact the IRS and the refund check will be reissued. If you were due a refund and haven't gotten it yet, call the IRS at 1-800-TAX-1040 (1-800-829-1040).

The IRS said that these refund checks were returned by the Postal Service because they could not be delivered. Every year thousands of checks are returned because the address on the tax return was not legible or the taxpayer moved and did not leave a forwarding address. The IRS suggests that taxpayers avoid these kinds of problems by using the peel off mailing label that comes with their tax package or by filing Form 8822, "Change of Address" whenever they move.

The IRS has a suggestion for taxpayers who don't want the worry of waiting around for the postman to deliver their refund check. File your return electronically and elect to have the refund deposited directly to your savings or checking account. Many of the over 7 million taxpayers who filed electronically this year opted for direct deposit and eliminated the possibility of lost, stolen or undeliverable refund checks.

Undelivered refund checks are not the general rule, the IRS said. For the last filing season, over 78 million taxpayers received their refund checks on time with the average refund being $963.

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