IRS Trying to Deliver Returned Refund Checks

Over $266 million in refund checks are sitting at the Internal Revenue Service. These refunds were returned to the IRS as undeliverable mail by the Postal Service. If you have yet to receive your tax refund or your stimulus rebate, you might want to update your address with the IRS by sending in Form 8822 (pdf, 2 pages). Once the IRS updates their records with your new address, they will mail out any refund checks they are holding for you.

You can also check the status of your refund online using the IRS Web site. The IRS has two web apps this year, one for the regular tax refund called Where's My Refund? and a separate web app for the stimulus rebate called Where’s My Stimulus Payment?

Taxpayers can also call a special IRS hotline to check the status of their refund. The toll-free numbers are 1-800-829-1954 to check on their regular refund, and 1-866-234-2942 to check on their stimulus rebate.

The IRS also urged taxpayers to utilize direct deposit to avoid having refund checks get stuck in the mail. However, I've become skeptical about the direct deposit service, especially since the IRS won't lend a hand if a taxpayer indicates incorrect direct deposit information. I've talked to lots of people who have lost their refunds this way, and so I've been telling people to get a check instead if there's any doubt about their bank numbers.