FILE – A portion of the 1040 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return form is shown July 24, 2018, in New York. The IRS has been tasked with looking into how to create a government-operated electronic free-file tax return system for all. Congress has directed the IRS to report in on how such a system might work. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

(Mark Lennihan / Associated Press)

The IRS has unclaimed tax refunds that are about to expire. Is one of them yours?

FATIMA HUSSEIN March 26, 2024

The IRS is warning taxpayers that they may be leaving more than $1 billion on the table.

The federal tax collector said Monday that roughly 940,000 people in the U.S. have until May 17 to submit tax returns for unclaimed refunds

,for tax year 2020,

which total more than $1 billion

nationwide, for tax year 2020.

The average median refund is $932 for 2020.

Texas (93,400), The estimated 88,200 people living in California who are

potentially eligible for these refunds

is the second highest state total after Texas. California (88,200), Florida (53,200) and New York (51,400) hasve the largest amount of people potentially eligible for theserefunds.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said 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. Theres a May 17 deadline to file these returns

so taxpayers should start soon to make sure they dont miss out.

For people who need to file a return, the IRS advises taxpayers to request their W-2, 1098, 1099 or 5498 from their employer or bank or order a free wage and income transcript using the Get Transcript Online tool at IRS.gov.

Taxpayers typically have three years to file and claim tax refunds, otherwise the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury.

Generally the deadline to claim old refunds falls around the April 15 tax deadline, but this year the three-year window for 2020 unfiled returns was postponed to May 17

because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But if taxpayers haven’t filed a return for tax year

2021 and 2022, any 2020 refunds would be withheld until they file for those years as well to make sure they don’t owe

money

Werfel said “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 dont run the risk of missing the May deadline.

Hussein writes for the Associated Press .Tax season officially

began on January 29

.According to the

latest tax season statistics

, more than 71.5 million individual tax filings have been submitted to the IRS this season.___See all of the APs tax season coverage at

https://apnews.com/hub/personal-finance