Missing a tax refund? IRS is looking for you

By Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel

Nov. 18, 2010 11:42 a.m. |(0) Comments

Hey Wisconsin: Uncle Sam might owe you.

The Internal Revenue Service is trying to locate nearly 1,000 Wisconsin residents who are owed federal tax refunds totaling almost $1 million. The refund checks were put in the mail, but were returned to the IRS as undeliverable, the agency says.

The IRS publishes an annual list of undeliverable tax refunds.

This year's edition includes 964 taxpayers who list addresses in Wisconsin, with checks totaling $951,292, said IRS regional spokesman Christopher Miller. The average check is $987.

To see if your name is on the list, go to this site .

Nationwide, the IRS is trying to return $164.6 million in undeliverable refund checks to 111,893 taxpayers. The checks usually come back to the agency because a taxpayer has moved, and didn't provide an updated address.

The agency's website, www.irs. gov  , features a "Where's My Refund?" tool  that enables taxpayers to check the status of their refunds. In some cases, the tool provides instructions to resolve delivery problems.

Taxpayers can access a telephone version of "Where's My Refund?" by calling 1-800-829-1954.

By the way, the IRS does not contact taxpayers by e-mail to alert them of pending refunds. Those e-mails are identity theft scams - delete 'em, and don't respond.