Still haven't seen your IRS refund check or your stimulus payment? It may be stuck in the mail. Thousands of tax filers -- including more than 2,700 in the eight-county Sacramento region -- have undelivered payments waiting for them, IRS officials said today.
The payments, which total more than $34.4 million in California, were among thousands across the country that were marked "undeliverable" by the U.S. Post office and sent back to IRS tax centers.
If it's a tax refund, the check will stay with your tax account until you provide the IRS with an updated address or file next year's taxes.
But if it's a stimulus check, it's crucial to contact the IRS as soon as possible.
"It's really, really urgent for taxpayers who got a stimulus check to contact us by Nov. 28," said IRS spokesman Jesse Weller. By law, the federal government must issue all stimulus payments by Dec. 31. If the IRS doesn't have your correct address by the end of November, you won't get a check.
"We don't want people to wait," said Weller. "Certainly, with the economy as it is, we know people can use the money."
In California, nearly 31,000 economic stimulus checks totaling about $18.7 million and more than 15,800 regular refund checks totaling about $15.7 million were returned as undeliverable. Of those, the average undelivered stimulus payment is $605 and the average refund check is $992.
According to the IRS, less than 1 percent of all stimulus and refund checks were returned this year.
Weller said there are several reasons why an IRS payment gets returned: Some taxpayers move after filing, but don't provide the post office or the IRS with a forwarding address; or paper tax returns filled out by hand may have an address that's illegible.
To get a refund check or stimulus payment re-sent, contact the IRS and get your address corrected.
For stimulus payments, go to www.irs.gov and click on "Where's My Stimulus Payment?" Or call the IRS at (866) 234-2942.
For a refund check, go to www.irs.gov and click on ""Where's My Refund?" Or call (800) 829-1954.
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