Want a Bigger Tax Refund? Be Sure You Actually Filed a Return

(Bloomberg) -- If you feel like you were robbed of a tax refund, check to make sure that you actually filed a return -- the IRS is trying to offload about $1.4 billion in unclaimed refunds from people who didn’t file three years ago, and time is running out.

“We’re trying to connect over a million people with their share of $1.4 billion in potentially unclaimed refunds for 2015,” IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said in a statement Wednesday. “Students, part-time workers and many others may have overlooked filing for 2015. And there’s no penalty for filing a late return if you’re due a refund.”

Tax returns for 2015 were due April 18, 2016. The average unclaimed refund is about $879, according the agency. Penalties for taxpayers who owe and who did not file can be as much as 25 percent of their unpaid taxes, plus interest.

The three-year grace period to collect unclaimed refunds is nearly gone, with the deadline for that and filing current tax returns set as April 15. Afterward, the money isn’t just an interest-free loan to the government. It’s a gift to the U.S. Treasury, which will claim the money as its own.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo

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