Tax refunds for 255 Montanans still unclaimed

The Daily Inter Lake

Wishing you had a little extra cash for holiday shopping?

You may be in luck if you're one of 255 Montana taxpayers who haven't received a tax refund check this year. Checks totaling just more than $172,955 - an average of about $678 a person - were returned to the Internal Revenue Service as undeliverable. In some cases, a taxpayer has more than one check waiting.

Nationwide, refunds totaling $92.2 million are waiting for more than 95,700 people to claim them.

There is no deadline for picking up a refund check for people who filed returns. The refund will be kept on file forever and may be claimed at any time.

Refund checks can go astray for a variety of reasons. When a taxpayer moves or changes addresses and fails to notify the IRS or the U.S. Postal Service, a check sent to the taxpayer's last known address is returned to the IRS.

Taxpayers can collect their refunds as soon as they update their addresses with the IRS. This can be done online, by phone or by mailing a change-of-address form.

On the Web at www.irs.gov, taxpayers can use the "Where's My Refund?" feature to find their refund statuses. To use the feature, a taxpayer must enter his Social Security number, filing status and the refund amount shown on his 2005 tax return. The site will then display the refund's status and, in some cases, provide instructions on how to resolve potential account issues.

"Where's My Refund?" also has a mailing address update feature for taxpayers whose checks were returned to the IRS within the past 12 months. Taxpayers can access a telephone version by calling 1-800-829-1954. People can also update their addresses with the IRS by filing a change of address form (Form 8822).