Nearly 1.5 million Americans have unclaimed tax refunds from 2019, totaling almost $1.5 billion in refunds, the Internal Revenue Service said this week.
People who have yet to claim their 2019 returns will need to file by July 17 to get their share from the nearly $1.5 billion, the IRS said.
The IRS estimates the midpoint for the unclaimed refunds from 2019 to be $893, which means half of the refunds are more than $893 and half are less.
In Washington, the IRS estimates 42,400 people have not filed their 2019 tax return, leaving a total of $44,823,200 in unclaimed refunds. The median potential refund for people in Washington is estimated to be $934.
“With the pandemic taking place when the 2019 tax returns were originally due, people faced extremely unusual situations,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in a Wednesday news release. “People may have simply forgotten about tax refunds with the deadline that year postponed all the way into July.”
Taxpayers usually have three years to file and claim their tax refunds. The normal filing deadline to claim old refunds usually falls around the April tax deadline, the IRS said. Tuesday, April 18, is the deadline this year for 2022 tax returns.
If taxpayers don’t file to claim their tax refunds within three years, their money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury.
The three-year window for 2019 unfiled tax returns was postponed to July 17, 2023, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, giving taxpayers more time than usual to file to claim their refunds.
“We frequently see students, part-time workers and others with little income overlook filing a tax return and never realize they may be owed a refund. We encourage people to review their records and start gathering records now, so they don’t run the risk of missing the July deadline,” Werfel said.
Missing out on filing a tax return can cause people to lose more than just their refund. Many low- and moderate-income workers may be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which in 2019 was worth as much as $6,557, according to the IRS.
The EITC helps individuals and families whose incomes were below certain thresholds in 2019:
- $50,162 ($55,952 if married and filing jointly) for those with three or more qualifying children
- $46,703 ($52,493 if married and filing jointly) for people with two qualifying children
- $41,094 ($46,884 if married and filing jointly) for those with one qualifying child
- $15,570 ($21,370 if married and filing jointly) for people without qualifying children
If taxpayers want to cash in on the unclaimed refund from 2019, their checks may be held if they have not filed tax returns for 2020 and 2021, the IRS said.
If you need to file a 2019 tax return, the IRS recommends several options to gather the information needed to file this tax return:
