Uncle Sam is sitting on a lot of cash meant for New Yorkers.
The IRS estimates $60.8 million in refunds remain unclaimed — or a median potential refund of $1,029 per individual — because 51,400 New Yorkers have failed to file their 2020 tax returns.
“People faced extremely unusual situations during the pandemic, which may have led some people to forget about a potential refund on their 2020 tax returns,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said. “People may have just overlooked these, including students, part-time workers and others.”
Data on returns for 2021, 2022 and 2023 is not yet available.
New York ranks third in total unclaimed refunds in the country, behind Texas, which has $107.1 million in potential refunds sitting on the table, and California, with $94.2 million in refunds waiting to be retrieved.
New Yorkers fared worse in 2019, when the IRS estimated 81,600 New York residents were owed $86.8 million, with an individual median refund of $945.
Nationally, roughly 940,000 people have left $1 billion in refunds for the 2020 tax year, per the IRS.
During the 2019 tax year, around 1.5 million people were owed $1.5 billion.
“An even larger number of people did not file their 2019 taxes, and [as with the 2020 taxes], that may be due to the challenges of the pandemic,” financial attorney Leslie Tayne said. “The tax deadline coincided with increasing uncertainty regarding jobs, income, etc., and many taxpayers may have skipped filing to avoid a potential tax bill that could harm their already shaky finances at that time.”
The $1 billion in refunds is a fraction of the money the IRS expects to receive in calendar year 2024, when 167 million tax returns are slated to be filed by at least 200 million taxpayers.
So far in 2024, the IRS is ahead of the game in terms of total number of returns received, Burke said.
People normally have three years to file and claim their refunds before they forfeit the money to the U.S. Treasury but the deadline was extended until May 17 for 2020 returns because of the pandemic.
