Focus at Four: IRS spokesman on $1 billion in unclaimed refunds
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – The IRS is warning taxpayers they may be leaving more than $1 billion on the table.
The federal tax collector said Monday that nearly a million people in the US have yet to submit tax returns for unclaimed refunds for the tax year 2020, which totals to more than $1 billion nationwide.
Clay Sanford, an IRS spokesperson, joined First News at Four on Friday to discuss the issue, and said it is ultimately all up to the taxpayer.
“It really is solely on the taxpayer because we can only estimate. For example, we estimate that there are about 93,000 of those unclaimed refunds in the state of Texas. This happens every year. We do this press release about this time in this campaign every year,” he said.
Sanford said a likely reason for this is the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, but there is a three-year deadline to claim the refunds.
“If a refund is not claimed, the money becomes the property of the US Treasury. It’s been that way for a long, long time. So we want to encourage folks if they need to look back and check their records to do so,” he said.
The deadline to claim 2020 tax refunds is May 17.
Head over to irs.gov for more information on how to claim.
