Unclaimed Tax Benefits
- The IRS allows you three years to amend a tax return to capture unclaimed benefits.Accounting image by Guitar75 from Fotolia.com
Even if you entrust your yearly federal tax filing to a pro, you could end up like one of the approximately 100,000 Americans whose 2009 tax refunds were undeliverable or unclaimed. You can avoid losing out on what is rightfully yours by making sure the IRS has your most up-to-date information and staying current with the changing tax regulations. - You may assume that if you don't owe any taxes, you don't have to complete an annual income tax filing. For just the 2006 tax year, the IRS reports that a total of over 1.3 billion dollars in tax refunds went unclaimed by people who did not file. Each year, the IRS publishes reminders to file back tax returns to claim your refund. You have three years from the date of your skipped filing to claim your refund for that year, and to do so, you need only file the standard IRS forms for the year in question.
- According to an annual update published by the Great Schools organization, "it's likely that 15 to 30 percent of families with a disabled child have one or more unclaimed tax benefits." One of the reasons these benefits remain unclaimed is that many tax preparers are not well informed regarding the benefits available. These include deductions from taxable income as well as tax credits. For example, you may be able to deduct the cost of your disabled child's special education under medical expenses if the school she attends specifically addresses her special needs. Also, while the standard rule for taking Child and Dependent Care Credit on your IRS form dictates that the child must be under 13 years of age, that rule does not apply to children with certain qualifying disabilities. These and other tax deductions and benefits for special needs children and adults are easy to overlook unless you keep yourself and your tax preparer informed on the changing tax laws from year to year.
- The postal service may elect not to forward a tax rebate check, so it is important that the IRS has your current address already in its system.mail box image by Joelyn Pullano from Fotolia.com
Nearly 279,000 Americans had not claimed their government economic stimulus check from the IRS as of the deadline in 2008. Most of this money, averaging $583 per check, had been returned to the IRS by the postal service as undeliverable. You can avoid address problems that may prevent the delivery of any tax rebates in future years by informing the IRS of changes in your address and by verifying that the agency has your complete address in its system. You can check for undelivered refunds or update personal information by visiting the IRS.gov website.
