IRS: Time is Running Out to Collect Over $1 Billion in Tax Refunds For 2020

By Alvin Buyinza, masslive.com (TNS)

Nearly 940,000 Americans have unclaimed tax returns from 2020 and face a May 17 deadline if they want to get it back, the IRS announced on Monday.

Due to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who’ve yet to file their 2020 tax returns, the IRS estimates there are more than $1 billion in unclaimed tax refunds, the agency stated in a news release.

The average median refund was $932 for 2020, according to the IRS. In Massachusetts, where 21,800 residents may be owed a refund for 2020, the median refund is about $975.

Danny Werfel

“There’s money remaining on the table for hundreds of thousands of people who haven’t filed 2020 tax returns,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel wrote in a statement. “We want taxpayers to claim these refunds, but time is running out for people who may have overlooked or forgotten about these refunds. There’s a May 17 deadline to file these returns so taxpayers should start soon to make sure they don’t miss out.”

Taxpayers have three years to file and claim their taxes for a tax year, according to the IRS. If they don’t, their returns become the property of the U.S. Treasury.

Usually, the deadline to file to claim old refunds is April 15, but the three-year window for the 2020 unfiled returns was postponed to May 17 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS stated.

“People faced extremely unusual situations during the pandemic, which may have led some people to forget about a potential refund on their 2020 tax returns,” Werfel said. “People may have just overlooked these, including students, part-time workers and others. Some people may not realize they may be owed a refund. We encourage people to review their files and start gathering records now, so they don’t run the risk of missing the May deadline.”

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