Does the IRS Owe You Money?

The nation’s tax collecting agency is searching for certain taxpayers. It seems that these citizens have moved or the IRS is having trouble reaching them at their current address. This is regarding the matter of a certain unreceived check and needs to be cleared up ASAP.

But names in the “Pay to the order of” section of these checks are the taxpayers’. These are refund checks that we’re talking about. This is a problem that the IRS encounters every year: undeliverable refund checks.

Although the checks only account for less than one tenth of one percent of all the refunds issued, they do represent and impressive $110 million in unclaimed money.

In their recent press release about their search, the IRS makes some suggestions for avoiding this problem in the future. First is to always notify the IRS and the Post Office when you have a change of address. Second is to set up direct deposit for refunds.

Could you be one of the taxpayers that the IRS is looking for? Check out the IRS’s “Where’s My Refund” page to see.

More On Tax Refund Scams

A few weeks ago I mentioned email scams that were attempting to imatate the IRS in order to trick US taxpayers into turning over valuable persanol information. Well, today I actually received one of these for myself. I though that I'd share it with you so you'll know what to be on the lookout for.

The sender listed on the message was "Internal Revenue Service (IRS)." That's certainly enough to get one's attention. When I looked closer, though, that actual email address had nothing to do with the IRS.

The subject line was "Tax Refund!" An exclamation point from the IRS? There's another tipoff that this is phony.

The body of the message read as follows:

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $116.40. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it.

A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.


To access the form for your tax refund, please:
Click Here


Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Regards, Internal Revenue Service

Please do not reply to this e-mail as this is only a notification. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.



© Copyright 2007 Internal Revenue Service U.S.A.

There was only one link in the message and it was on the words "Click here." When I floated my cursor over it, the web address had nothing to do with the IRS. Clearly this was a fake.