(DailyDig.com) – Here is something you don’t often hear — a piece of good news from the IRS. That’s right, there is refund money available to an estimated 1.5 million taxpayers who did not file their 2018 Form 1040 tax return.
3-Year Grace Period
Perhaps you are thinking to yourself: “Wait a minute, how could I possibly be due a refund from 2018, that seems so long ago!” Indeed, a few years have passed since that time, but the IRS has a 3-year rule for taxpayers who have failed to file their paperwork to claim their refund. The government agency explains on their website:
If a taxpayer doesn’t file their return, they usually have three years to file and claim their tax refund. If they don’t file within three years, the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury.
No one wants to turn over more money to the US government than they absolutely have to, and yet more than a million taxpayers have money just waiting to be claimed. The mid-point refund due is $813, which means that half of the refunds owed to taxpayers are more than that amount, and half are less. In this particular economic climate, everyone could benefit from a few hundred extra dollars in their pocket right now!
Those Who Filed an Extension Can Still Make a Claim
People file their taxes in the year following the year after the year that is on the tax forms. In other words, people file their 2018 taxes in early 2019. Thus, they have three years from the last filing date (mid-April 2019) to make their refund claim. Since more than three years have passed since that date, you might think that you are completely out of luck when it comes to potentially getting some of your refund money back, but that isn’t true either.
While this year’s tax deadline has passed, you can still file for your refund if you filed for an extension this year, giving you until October 17th to file. Believe it or not, many people do exactly that.
When a taxpayer files an extension, they are granted an extra 6 months, until October of that year, to file their returns. This buys them a few extra months to try to get their paperwork and finances in order enough to pull their returns together. It is quite possible that many people did this back in April of this year and still haven’t filed. If that is the case, then the IRS may still owe you some money, and you still have until October 17th of this year to file your claim.
Act Now Before the Time Goes By
There are very strict deadlines on when you can make your refund claim, and we all know that it takes some time to sit down and actually file your taxes. You should keep that in mind and avoid the temptation to put this work off for a little while longer. The further that you push this off into the future, the slimmer the chances are that you will get it taken care of at all. That is not a condemnation of you as an individual, but rather a commentary on the nature of human beings as a whole.
The sooner that you can get your refund filed, the better your chances of actually getting it down. With a mid-point number as high as $813, it is probably worth your time and effort to get your forms filed right now.
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