Most commonly, unclaimed property incidents and claims occur at the state level. In addition, it is worth mentioning that billions of dollars worth of unclaimed property are held by various federal agencies.
The major holder of unclaimed property at the federal level is the Internal Revenue Service. For 2008, the IRS reported that 107,831 refund checks, totalling $123.5 million were returned due to mailing address errors. Undeliverable refund checks average $1,148. In addition, at the end of 2008, more than 279,000 economic stimulus checks totaling about $163 million were returned.
Taxpayers who believe that they are owed a refund can check the "Where's My Refund?" feature on the irs.gov website. To use it, taxpayers must enter their Social Security number, filing status (such as single or married filing jointly) and the refund amount shown on their current tax return. Once the information is submitted, "Where's My Refund?" will show the status of the taxpayer's refund.
Taxpayers who do not have Internet access and believe that they are missing a refund check should call the IRS toll-free assistance line at 1-800-829-1040.
Taxpayers who have moved since filing their last tax return can provide the IRS with their correct mailing address by filing Form 8822, Change of Address, with the IRS. This form can be downloaded from irs.gov or taxpayers may request it by calling 1-800-TAX-FORM (1-800-829-3676).
To avoid future undelivered refunds, taxpayers can choose to have their refunds sent directly into a personal checking or savings account through direct deposit. This option is available for both paper and electronic return filers.
Rather than giving the IRS money they didn't earn, direct deposit might be the best way to go if there is any chance a taxpayer expects an address change in the foreseeable future. As an added bonus, direct deposit gets refunds to the taxpayer a week sooner than issuing a check.
Other federal agencies that hold unclaimed property include:
U.S. Department of the Treasury. If you or anyone in your family ever owned a savings bond, you should know that over 15,000 savings bonds and 25,000 payments return to the Department of the Treasury as undeliverable each year. Also, over $15 billion worth of uncashed savings bonds have stopped earning interest.
The Treasury Department's Treasure Hunt searchable database allows you to search the records for registered Treasury notes and bonds. There are limitations with this system, however.
For example, the database cannot help you search for savings bonds that you've lost. Also, the database only includes savings bonds returned to Treasury as undeliverable since 1996.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). If ever you had an FHA insured mortgage, you may be unaware that you are eligible for a mortgage insurance refund from HUD. To check this potential source of unclaimed money, search the HUD database to find out if you are due a refund.
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). In April of 2007, the PBGC reported that it is holding $133 million in unclaimed pension benefits for 32,000 people owed money from terminated defined benefit pension plans. To assist people who may have lost track of their pension, the PBGC has offered since 1996 the Pension Search directory. Searches can be done by last name, company name, or state where the company was headquartered.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC provides deposit insurance to financial institutions and their depositors. When an insured financial institution is liquidated, the FDIC frequently retains the following unclaimed payments:
- insured deposits up to $100,000;
- dividends declared on excess deposits over the $100,000 insured amount;
- dividends declared on general creditor claims; and
- funds distributed to the shareholders of the failed institution.
The above funds remain unclaimed for various reasons, including failure to cash FDIC checks and checks being returned as undeliverable due to an invalid address. However, depositors can reclaim the funds they are entitled to after finding their names in the FDIC unclaimed funds database.