IRS estimates there's over $1 billion in unclaimed 2020 tax year refunds, warns of approaching deadline

The Internal Revenue Service noted in a March 25 press release that due to scads of people failing to file their 2020 taxes, an estimated more than $1 billion in refunds have gone unclaimed for that tax year.

But the agency warned that the clock is ticking: People need to act before the approaching deadline if they want the opportunity to claim the cash.

"Under the law, taxpayers usually have three years to file and claim their tax refunds. If they don’t file within three years, the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury," the IRS noted. "But for 2020 tax returns, people have a little more time than usual to file to claim their refunds. Typically, the normal filing deadline to claim old refunds falls around the April tax deadline, which is April 15 this year for 2023 tax returns. But the three-year window for 2020 unfiled returns was postponed to May 17, 2024, due to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency."

As Americans toil to file their 2023 taxes before the deadline next month, the ever-expanding U.S. national debt is more than $34 trillion.

"There's money remaining on the table for hundreds of thousands of people who haven’t filed 2020 tax returns," IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said, according to an IRS press release. "We want taxpayers to claim these refunds, but time is running out for people who may have overlooked or forgotten about these refunds. There's a May 17 deadline to file these returns so taxpayers should start soon to make sure they don't miss out."

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