The State of Texas has the most unclaimed potential refunds in the amount of approximately $142M with the average refund being $924.

Nearly 1.5 million taxpayers across the nation have unclaimed refunds for tax year 2019 but face a July 17th deadline to submit their tax return. The COVID Pandemic, which resulted in the Nation being shut down during the 2019 tax filing deadline resulted in outstanding tax returns being forgotten.  For 2019, the average median refund outstanding is $893. As mentioned in IRS Issue Number IR-2023-79, the IRS has done a state-by-state calculation to display how many taxpayers are potentially eligible for the unclaimed refunds.  The top 10 states who have refunds outstanding are listed as follows:

No.

State

Individuals

Avg. Refund

Potential Refund

1

Texas

135,300

$924

$142,235,200

2

California

144,700

$856

$141,780,000

3

Florida

89,300

$893

$89,530,400

4

New York

81,600

$945

$86,826,200

5

Illinois

55,800

$916

$57,591,300

6

Pennsylvania

56,000

$924

$57,572,600

7

Ohio

51,800

$868

$50,234,900

8

Michigan

48,500

$888

$48,582,600

9

Georgia

48,000

$826

$46,269,000

10

Washington

42,400

$934

$44,823,200

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 









The IRS wants taxpayers to claim these refunds and start as soon as possible before they are forfeited to the US Treasury.  Normally, the filing deadline to file for a past due refund is three years from the April tax deadline, which is April 18th for returns filed in the 2022 tax return window. However, the COVID-19 pandemic emergency gave way to legislation which extended the deadline until July 17th, 2023.

Low and moderate income taxpayers are particularly vulnerable to unclaimed refunds.  Oftentimes low and moderate income taxpayers have qualifying children with income below approximately $50k (or approximately $55k for MFJ) making them eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit which is worth as much as $6,557 for 2019.

Nevertheless, tax refunds for subsequent years such as 2020 and 2021 will likely be delayed when prior returns are not filed.  Moreover, if the taxpayer receives a tax refund for the year but has outstanding governmental obligations such as IRS debt, student loan debt, state debt, unpaid child support, etc., the refund will be applied to those outstanding obligations first before the balance is refunded to the taxpayer.

If you or someone you know is affected by an unclaimed refund due to the COVID-19 pandemic, feel free to reach out to our office to plan for the 2019 tax return deadline sooner rather than later to benefit by the extended deadline date.  

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