Missing money? IRS asks

The IRS may be looking for you, but don’t lower the blinds and turn off the lights just yet. This time, the agency is looking to give away more than $322,000 in undeliverable refunds to Newport-Mesa residents.

IRS spokesman Rafael Tulino said the majority of the 108 residents on the agency’s undeliverable list ended up on it because they moved and left no forwarding address for the post office to deliver to.

But don’t feel foolish if you didn’t claim your refund. Even the professionals sometimes miss their IRS check.

Irvine resident Kenneth Nicolas, a financial advisor, said he’s unsure why his name would be on the list.

The IRS had him listed with a Newport Beach address, where his business used to be, but he has not been at that address for a number of years.

“That’s so strange,” Nicolas said. “It’s great news, but strange.”

As a financial advisor, Nicolas was understandably puzzled that there was some refund he apparently missed.

“We’re pretty high visibility,” Nicolas said. “It’s not like we went off and didn’t leave a forwarding address, and then we’ve filed taxes every year.”

What’s owed to Newport-Mesa residents is not necessarily chump change. The average refund check that was undeliverable, according to the agency’s figures, is almost $3,000.

“The main reason is the change-of-address issue, but there are a lot of other reasons,” Tulino said.

The other reasons include name changes — if someone gets married and doesn’t change his or her name with the IRS — or it’s possible that the IRS made a mistake on the address. “We do process 132 million returns,” Tulino said.

Other possibilities include illegible handwriting on the form, Tulino said.

Tulino said sometimes the problem is remedied when the taxpayer files another year’s taxes since the forms are codified in part by the person’s Social Security number. When it kicks in the system that there’s another address, the IRS can send out the check.

In Nicolas’ case, filing taxes with his new business and home address hasn’t yet corrected the agency’s contact list.

Tulino suggested that taxpayers opt for the direct-deposit refund option to remedy the problem.

To avoid this, it’d be even better to kick the paper habit altogether and click the direct-deposit box,” Tulino said.

That way, the computer always provides legible writing, and if people decide to go for the direct-deposit option, it makes the job “easier for everyone involved.”

As in past years, this year almost 1,400 people in Orange County may still be checking their mailbox for their refund checks.

If any resident thinks he or she may be owed a refund, either from last year’s filings or years past — there is no deadline to claim it before the money’s absorbed by the United States Treasury — he or she should contact the agency at (800) 829-1954 or (800) 829-1040. There is also a “Where’s My Refund” option at www.irs.gov, but Tulino said both the taxpayer’s Social Security number and the amount he or she is owed are required for that function.

The list of those the IRS can’t deliver refunds to is different from the unclaimed list. People who do not cash their refund checks or do not claim the refunds they’re owed in a year have three years to collect. After three years, the money goes back to the Treasury, Tulino said.

Although the percentage of people whose addresses are incorrect on the form is small compared with how many refunds the IRS processes, Tulino said it’s still important that taxpayers know they are entitled to the money.

“There are so many reasons why, but the fact is these were undeliverable,” Tulino said. “We’re just looking to find these checks’ homes.”