Unclaimed Tax Refunds: How To Claim Yours
When a taxpayer owes money on their taxes they need to pay the
amount owed before the traditional April 15th deadline. If the
amount owed on taxes is not paid before the deadline, then
federal and state governments can impose a number of late fees
and penalties. While there are penalties for failing to a pay
taxes on time, there are no penalties assessed to individuals
who are due a refund but fail to file their tax returns on time.
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Tax season is a stressful time for many taxpayers. With hectic
lives and busy schedules it is likely that an individual may not
find the time to have their taxes prepared. As previously
mentioned, there is the chance of late fees and other additional
penalties for individuals who owe taxes; therefore, many
individuals who are expected to owe money are more likely to
find the time to have their taxes completed on time than those
who do not. There are no penalties for taxpayers who are
expected to receive a refund to file their taxes late; however,
there may be another problem that arises. That problem is what
is known as unclaimed tax refunds.
Unclaimed tax refunds are tax refunds that are due to a
particular taxpayer; however, they failed to claim them.
Unclaimed tax refunds often result when a busy taxpayer who
expects a tax refund puts off sending in their tax forms until
it is completely forgotten about. Although the majority of
Americans look forward to the day that their tax refund arrives,
there are still many others who allow their refunds to become
unclaimed tax refunds. It is estimated that hundreds to
thousands of individuals each year fail to file tax returns
which would result in them receiving a refund. Filing a tax
refund is a fairly simple process. For under thirty dollars an
individual can purchase a tax software program that will make
tax preparation easy and quick. Most taxpayers can prepare their
own paper taxes by filling out a federal 1040A or a 1040EZ form.
Each of these forms is likely to take less than an hour for the
average taxpayer to complete.
A taxpayer has until three years after the year that they were
supposed to file their tax return to claim their refund. For
taxpayers to get their refund they have to file the federal or
state tax return forms that they previously failed to file.
Since the tax laws change from year to year, a taxpayer looking
to reclaim their unclaimed tax refund must use a tax form for
the year they missed. By visiting the website of the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) at http://www.irs.gov, an individual
can find and download old federal tax forms. The same can be
done with most old state tax forms. To do so individuals are
encouraged to visit the website of their state tax department
and then download the specific forms they need.
It is hard to imagine why a taxpayer would not want to claim
their tax refund. Unclaimed tax refunds do not benefit anyone
but the federal or state government. A tax refund is money that
is owed to a taxpayer because he or she paid too much in taxes.
Why pay more money in taxes than you have to? Act now before
your money is forever known as one of the many unclaimed tax
refunds.