Unclaimed Tax Refund - You May Be Owed a Refund
Unclaimed Tax Refund is money that was unable to return to respective American taxpayers. Generally, tax refunds are the reimbursement of any amount of money that was paid by the taxpayers in the federal or local state government units.
These financial assets were being held by the federal government of the United States as long as it was categorized as unclaimed. Unclaimed Tax Refunds can be useful for each American individual.
These unclaimed funds can be a reliable and great source of money and be an additional for funds or investments. Moreover, these financial assets can be used from anything and anywhere.
Many individuals do not know that the U.S government owes them funds. Various reasons can be done by taxpayers as their tax refund becomes unclaimed. However, there are also systematic processes for the reclamation of the said financial asset.
Millions of Individuals are Qualified for Unclaimed Tax Refund
Even if funds are being held by the federal government or local state units, unclaimed tax refunds are generally supervised and handled by the
U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The said government branch is in charge of managing the taxes throughout the United States.
Moreover, IRS also manages tax returns within different U.S Local states. However, the rules and regulations regarding unclaimed money or tax refunds differ from each local state. It was set and created by their respective local governments.
Millions of individuals don’t have any information or knowledge regarding their unclaimed tax refunds. Last April 2021, the U.S Internal Revenue Service announced that they are holding almost $1.3 billion in unclaimed tax refunds. These funds are from estimated 1.3 million individuals who did not file Form 1040 Federal Income Tax Return last 2017.
From the data, millions of American citizens still do not receive their respective financial assets that became the fruit of being a taxpayer. Furthermore, the IRS pushes individuals to claim their funds before the three-year window process of claiming unclaimed money.
How Do Tax Become Unclaimed?
Various reasons can be counted in as a tax refund of an individual become unclaimed. One of the most common situations for an unclaimed tax refund is regarding the individual’s address.
If an individual has a tax refund and moved from another address but did update his status in the tax authority of the IRS, then the fund will be unclaimed. Since the individual was registered from his/her previous address, the tax refund mail will be delivered there.
The individual will not know that his/her unclaimed funds. Moreover, the process of updating bank account numbers can also be a problem. The taxpayer must always update their ban information in the tax authority.
Furthermore, checking emails would be helpful upon validating your tax refund. Some checks were sent through email by the Internal Revenue Service.
Aside from these, there are several possibilities that an individual would not be able to claim his/her tax refund. Annual checking and updating of your status will be helpful to track your unclaimed tax refund.
How Can I Know if I Have Unclaimed Refund?
As many American individuals are not able to check whether they have unclaimed tax refunds, there are various ways that can be done to deal with it.
The first way to know if an individual has an unclaimed tax refund is to visit their respective local government units. Individuals can ask and search for their details and information within the Internal Revenue Service. Furthermore, the IRS also has a website wherein American citizens can search and track online whether the government owes them money.
However, the website will require you some necessary documents to move with the process. Individuals must prepare their Social Security Number to process their status verification. After the process, individuals would be able to see their respective tax details and information.
These ways were created to effectively check the tax refund status of each American citizen. Moreover, these can avoid various problems upon tax refunds especially the three-year window for unclaimed funds.
How Can I Reclaim Tax?
Individuals can reclaim their unclaimed tax refund in different ways. One of the most basic and systematic processes of reclamation is through Form 1040 Federal Income Tax Return.
Upon filing the said form, the Internal Revenue Service will help individuals to reclaim their respective unclaimed funds. Refer below for the list of steps an individual should do for the filing of Form 1040 Federal Income Tax Return.
1. Get the Form 1040 Federal Income Tax Return.
2. Read the instructions for Form 1040 Federal Income Tax Return
3. Fill up the form and submit it through your Local IRS Office.
4. The further application process will depend on your local government.
After submitting the Form 1040 Federal Income Tax Return, the Internal Revenue Service will process the status of the individual. It will check and track your tax status as well as your unclaimed tax refunds. Confirmation and verification for the said process can be done through phone calls or verification.
Required Documents for Filling Refund?
As the process of reclamation depends on your local state, the documents required for reclaiming properties also. You can also visit your local state office to know the process and documents to reclaim your unclaimed properties.
You can see below some of the most common documents for the process of reclamation:
• Proof of Identification
• Proof of Residency
• Tax Status
• Proof of Employment
• Bank Accounts
• Accounts from investments
