Maybe the Internal Revenue Service has some of your cash!
The IRS is looking for 115,478 taxpayers who are due refund checks worth about $110 million after the checks were returned as undeliverable. Yep, that averages out to nearly $1000 a pop.
If you are expecting a refund and have not received one for the 2006 tax year, you can check the status by phone (1.800.829.1954) or online (www.irs.gov). You must be prepared to provide your Social Security number, filing status and amount of refund.
Why all the undeliverable returns? A refund check is normally returned as undeliverable when a taxpayer moves without updating his or her address with either the U.S. Postal Service or the IRS. You can update your address by completing form 8822, available for download here as a pdf.
Of course, if you sign up for Direct Deposit when you complete your returns, you can avoid all of the misdelivered mail issues altogether. Direct Deposit is available for filers of both paper and electronic returns.
